There are unchanging things in life. The Earth's race around the sun, the water cycle, working conditions at Ubisoft. XDefiant Although it has had a public testing phase and fairly positive feedback, the FPS does not seem determined to show up and is constantly being pushed back. Executive producer Mark Rubin explained that the game encounters ” major technical difficulties “, but according to an investigation by Tom Henderson for Insider Gaming, that would not be the only cause of the production problems encountered. The saddest thing about all of this is that the story is strangely familiar.
There is a “Boys Club” within the development team based in San Francisco which, although it only included a few people at the start of production, has grown to around ten people who were responsible for the shortcomings. on the calendar, crunch and toxic behavior. Its evolution would correspond with the moment when the decision was taken to no longer associate XDefiant to the Tom Clancy brand, giving the group the opportunity to make their changes and their desires without the constraints and obligations attached to the license, leading to internal problems, crunch and repeated delays. Changes considered unwise by the rest of the team, who were forced to incorporate them under pressure.
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Ubisoft does it again on XDefiant
The most frightening thing about all of this is that we find exactly the same structures as with Libération's investigation into the Ubisoft Paris editorial team a few years ago. Managers who protect each other, who are not worried by the numerous reports made to human resources against them, for sexist, racist behavior and other joyous things. Worse still, the existence of this group would be known outside of Ubisoft San Francisco and others would be aware of what is happening there. A work atmosphere so toxic that the testimonies collected by Tom Henderson speak of people who found themselves crying or having a nervous breakdown in the middle of an open space.
Following the publication of Insider Gaming's investigation, a former member of the team who left the studio in 2017 gave her testimony in public. Lisette Title-Montgomery was called in public “ stupid bitch » and she saw the word “nèXXe” written on the board in the meeting room in which she was participating. A tiny, very concrete glimpse into the daily life of Ubisoft San Francisco. More than three years after the promises of change announced by Ubisoft management, the same systemic problems reappear.
This is why I left @Ubisoft SF during SPTFB.
“The Boys Club” are a known abusers. Domestic abuse included.
I was verbally insulted constantly. Called “a stupid bitch” in front of my team.
“Ni**er” (Hard ER) was written on a whiteboard at a meeting I attended.
Bullying was… https://t.co/niJIv4KVBy— Lisette Title-Montgomery 🔜 GDC (@zette16) March 28, 2024
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And XDefiant in all this?
The game would be delayed by two years due to unexpected and constant changes requested by managers. Any advice or suggestions not coming from a club member would be automatically ignored. Despite the producer's public denials, several people internally say that additions are incorporated regularly depending on what Call of Duty is doing. The testimonies speak of requests from managers which, once presented according to their instructions, were no longer suitable because a new idea had arrived in the meantime, forcing the teams to rework everything again. These changing requests can go on for months, without knowing whether the outcome would ultimately be included in the game or simply abandoned.
These repeated changes led the teams to a technical impasse regarding the game's netcode. The untimely additions meant that XDefiant fails to meet the objective of having 100 players per server and the various closed playtest phases are not enough to resolve the problems encountered. If Ubisoft still hopes to make it a success with a free to play model and the very positive feedback that the game had obtained, members of the team believe that the additional content and the battle pass supposed to accompany the release will inevitably be late due to other production concerns.