XDefiant: The Industry's Unlearned Lessons
XDefiant
2025年08月18日 08:50
@MegaCritz2025/08/17(日) 10:23
I mean, they also outright refused to launch the game on Steam, which hurt the health of their PC version, so overall they weren't serious about the game at all.
@RobertoRamirez.2025/08/17(日) 10:18
For me, the server issues were my biggest problem. Call of duty at 30 htz isn't great but serviceable. Xdefiant's poor hit registration was too frustrating for me
@cegentry2025/08/17(日) 10:10
lol. I keep up with gaming news and am what I would consider myself a huge gamer. I have never even heard of this game. 🤪
@kiarashasady87942025/08/17(日) 09:51
Your voice reminds me of GLaDOS 😂
@Gundroog2025/08/17(日) 08:44
As someone who did put some hours into XDefiant in hopes that it would be a more palletable CoD, I do agree that you can't blame marketing here. Though I feel like you can somewhat blame Mark Rubin for trying so hard to position this game as "CoD but good."
They obviously heard all the complaints about the SBMM that CoD players were whining about. But the thing about that, is that the SBMM complaint is almost exclusive to CoD. When people complain about matchmaking in other games, they usually complain about uneven matches, they want games to be more fair. In CoD, players complain about "forced" 50% winrate, "forced" 1.0 K/D ratio, or how "the sweats" are ruining the game. It's a bizarre situation because it's people complaining that their games are too hard now, while also claiming that SBMM is implemented to "protect the bad players." Why would you ever try to remove or relax your matchmaking to appease these people?
It obviously led to some terrible crapshoot matches. Because these days, that period of everyone being new just doesn't last. There weren't (and still aren't) really any games like Fighter Ace, so it would be a fairly unfamiliar experience for most players. With XDefiant, if you're into FPS, you've played dozens of games like this, and will likely find your groove really quickly. The era of just hopping on a server with random people and having a good time no longer exists. Especially now that progression and sometimes rank systems push people to care about their performance.
Even subjectively, they completely missed the mark with the character abilities. I'm not sure why modern shooters seem obsessed with the idea of abilities that highlight players through walls. Yeah it might make some people feel good when they get easy kills, but it's nothing but a source of frustration in the long term. There were more problematic abilities that don't mix with with their supposed focus on player skill, and you won't find too many people who enjoy losing to things they can't reasonably play around. Like there's a reason why pretty much every community server on TF2 removed random crits.
They obviously heard all the complaints about the SBMM that CoD players were whining about. But the thing about that, is that the SBMM complaint is almost exclusive to CoD. When people complain about matchmaking in other games, they usually complain about uneven matches, they want games to be more fair. In CoD, players complain about "forced" 50% winrate, "forced" 1.0 K/D ratio, or how "the sweats" are ruining the game. It's a bizarre situation because it's people complaining that their games are too hard now, while also claiming that SBMM is implemented to "protect the bad players." Why would you ever try to remove or relax your matchmaking to appease these people?
It obviously led to some terrible crapshoot matches. Because these days, that period of everyone being new just doesn't last. There weren't (and still aren't) really any games like Fighter Ace, so it would be a fairly unfamiliar experience for most players. With XDefiant, if you're into FPS, you've played dozens of games like this, and will likely find your groove really quickly. The era of just hopping on a server with random people and having a good time no longer exists. Especially now that progression and sometimes rank systems push people to care about their performance.
Even subjectively, they completely missed the mark with the character abilities. I'm not sure why modern shooters seem obsessed with the idea of abilities that highlight players through walls. Yeah it might make some people feel good when they get easy kills, but it's nothing but a source of frustration in the long term. There were more problematic abilities that don't mix with with their supposed focus on player skill, and you won't find too many people who enjoy losing to things they can't reasonably play around. Like there's a reason why pretty much every community server on TF2 removed random crits.
@stephan5532025/08/17(日) 08:44
Great vid! Same issues as in virtually any other large software project.
With almost 30y of XP on large scale / distributed software, lots of it as independent consultant, it turns out it's not the software itself, but being unwilling to make hard choices and pay for past mistakes...
With almost 30y of XP on large scale / distributed software, lots of it as independent consultant, it turns out it's not the software itself, but being unwilling to make hard choices and pay for past mistakes...
@exospaca2025/08/17(日) 08:13
Christ, Internet Gaming Zone, there is a throwback.
@kaptenteo2025/08/17(日) 08:12
So many games ruined by overinflated egos and narcissism. The most frustrating part is that these managers and CEO's are never the ones to pay the price in the end. They just "fail upwards" to a new project or company – to do it all over again – while the developers who have suffered under them, usually end up taking the blame and losing their jobs.
@drewwn2025/08/17(日) 08:04
It's such a comfort to the gaming community to have good ol' Laura to state the obvious. Thumbs down babe.
@BrokenControllerClub2025/08/17(日) 07:54
Once again it seems like the common theme is executives who have no idea how to run their businesses. They know how to play office politics and get promoted, but when it comes to actual work? Totally incompetent.
@yuliayulsen2025/08/17(日) 07:11
Thank you for your insights, I'm working in software development (not gaming) and find them very interesting. Lots of companies seem to have the same problems.
@guillermo91712025/08/17(日) 07:10
It seems that management (and I'd say by extension leadership) is a skill but also kind of like an art, meaning it's extremely slow and difficult to learn requiring huge amounts of practice BUT UNLIKE ART very boring and unsatisfying, meaning you'll have to learn it while fighting you every instinct to run away and do something more rewarding and fun.
The result is most people don't have it, ESPECIALLY people most excited about their work (such as game developers), which spells disaster unless they work under someone who does (which they'll resist at every turn).
The result is most people don't have it, ESPECIALLY people most excited about their work (such as game developers), which spells disaster unless they work under someone who does (which they'll resist at every turn).
@Guarrow2025/08/17(日) 06:48
The fact that there wasn't SBMM wasn't an issue at all. Ranked was, obviously, but no-SBMM actually felt sooooo great, just like old CoDs used to be. It allowed you to play whatever you want, and it wouldn't impact the balance of the next match.
The « noob stomping » thing is barely an argument, most people are noobs and you already get stomped by godlike players even with sbmm, but it's controlled and you feel like a rat in a maze at that moment, because after that stomp, you'll get rewarded by fighting against toddlers. I stopped playing Valorant for that exact reason despite the fact that I was only playing unranked.
In a game like CoD, SBMM (and EOMM) is heavily criticized specifically because it pushes you to sweat every match. You can't try an off meta loadout without your mmr being impacted, if you dare having fun it'll cost you the next match. So it's always about performance. No SBMM was a boon to xDefiant in my eyes, it made most matches very chill. Being stomped meant nothing, I would just start again and it'll be completely different.
Hit registration, netcode, and especially the engine tho .... unfortunately not the designer's choice, and it shows.
The « noob stomping » thing is barely an argument, most people are noobs and you already get stomped by godlike players even with sbmm, but it's controlled and you feel like a rat in a maze at that moment, because after that stomp, you'll get rewarded by fighting against toddlers. I stopped playing Valorant for that exact reason despite the fact that I was only playing unranked.
In a game like CoD, SBMM (and EOMM) is heavily criticized specifically because it pushes you to sweat every match. You can't try an off meta loadout without your mmr being impacted, if you dare having fun it'll cost you the next match. So it's always about performance. No SBMM was a boon to xDefiant in my eyes, it made most matches very chill. Being stomped meant nothing, I would just start again and it'll be completely different.
Hit registration, netcode, and especially the engine tho .... unfortunately not the designer's choice, and it shows.
@Guarrow2025/08/17(日) 06:42
I insist that marketing what definitely a big issue, but probably not in the traditional sense
What definitely condemned the game in my opinion, was its absence on Steam.
I loved the game, I even bought the first battlepass when I completed it, but like with all games, there is a natural ebb & flow. Everytime I grow tired of any game, I just lurk around my Steam/Playnite library, and find something else that gets my attention.
And it's with some random video that popped up on YouTube that I told myself "how tf did I forgot about xDefiant ???" and genuinely felt bad about it because I loved the game. But to me, it became immediately clear that its absence from Steam, ie the store/launcher that every PC game has on their computer and is one of the first program a gamer installs when they get a new machine, was a huge detriment for no good reason.
Another game I love : The Finals. Almost a year ago I forgot about it too, and I'm having a blast now, I play it regularely because I'm always reminded that the game exists. When I don't think about it, it sits somewhere on Steam, I see the icon somewhere, maybe there's an update and it appears of the newsfeed, whatever. It doesn't take much.
It just reminds me of how some games released on Epic and immediately flopped. You either need a huge marketing budget that transcend Steam because it's already a huge multiplatform game, or you get burried under Fortnite. Some people at Ubisoft somehow thought that they have a brand so strong, they can do without Steam's visibility.
The rest are details in my opinion. There are worse games that have lived on, or for much longer. xDefiant was killed because of incompetence, to a point it feels like borderline sabotage to me. It's really sad because despite its shortcomings and many issues, it still was a great game. I wish it was preserved in some way.
What definitely condemned the game in my opinion, was its absence on Steam.
I loved the game, I even bought the first battlepass when I completed it, but like with all games, there is a natural ebb & flow. Everytime I grow tired of any game, I just lurk around my Steam/Playnite library, and find something else that gets my attention.
And it's with some random video that popped up on YouTube that I told myself "how tf did I forgot about xDefiant ???" and genuinely felt bad about it because I loved the game. But to me, it became immediately clear that its absence from Steam, ie the store/launcher that every PC game has on their computer and is one of the first program a gamer installs when they get a new machine, was a huge detriment for no good reason.
Another game I love : The Finals. Almost a year ago I forgot about it too, and I'm having a blast now, I play it regularely because I'm always reminded that the game exists. When I don't think about it, it sits somewhere on Steam, I see the icon somewhere, maybe there's an update and it appears of the newsfeed, whatever. It doesn't take much.
It just reminds me of how some games released on Epic and immediately flopped. You either need a huge marketing budget that transcend Steam because it's already a huge multiplatform game, or you get burried under Fortnite. Some people at Ubisoft somehow thought that they have a brand so strong, they can do without Steam's visibility.
The rest are details in my opinion. There are worse games that have lived on, or for much longer. xDefiant was killed because of incompetence, to a point it feels like borderline sabotage to me. It's really sad because despite its shortcomings and many issues, it still was a great game. I wish it was preserved in some way.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 07:13
I've now had a few comments on The Finals. I'll have to go look into the game. I think you make a great point about Steam. At one point, publisher's all decided they needed their own online store/services because they didn't want to pay Valve for the distribution and that's likely why Ubisoft didn't put the game there. I certainly understand the desire but it's difficult to ignore the biggest PC store for your games. Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
@The__Ninjaneer2025/08/17(日) 06:40
I know there are many other problems behind the scenes with the game, which you talk about in the video, but I'm always wary of games that want to throw out buzzwords to try to appeal to players. CoD was going through this whole big skill based matchmaking thing, and so XDefiant comes out and says "we don't have SBMM" and "if you're bad at the game and/or keep losing, that's on you to get better." That works for a lot of people, but for many others, they want to play the equivalent of a quick 3v3 pickup basketball game at the park, not try out for the NBA. Sure, when overtuned, it takes any sort of good game as grounds to put you against people taking the game too seriously, but with none of it, you're just thrown to the sharks.
@GyldariaTanoGen2025/08/17(日) 06:37
Very good video as always, Laura!
Have you or are you writing a book or pieces about your history with management? It’s clear from your videos that you take great pride in your work and I feel that your teachings are valuable to folks even outside of the games industry as it relates to management.
If you aren’t or haven’t written anything - do you have any suggestions for books or pieces that you have learned from and respect?
thanks in advance!
Have you or are you writing a book or pieces about your history with management? It’s clear from your videos that you take great pride in your work and I feel that your teachings are valuable to folks even outside of the games industry as it relates to management.
If you aren’t or haven’t written anything - do you have any suggestions for books or pieces that you have learned from and respect?
thanks in advance!
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 07:09
I have not written a book yet. I was writing and then decided making video content might be more interesting for people. One of my favorite management books is called Stewardship by Peter Block. It's an approach where you are operating in service to the team/organization vs. the traditional method of leading by control.
@SnappySanad2025/08/17(日) 06:15
Me and my friends wanted to give the game a shot but the netcode felt like crap
@AsimovBR2025/08/17(日) 05:26
Laura Keep an eye of Arc Raiders, i think theres some special story behind that game. The launch is between BF6 and Blackops 7. Embark should pay a consultancy with you to handle this launch, because they are lost
@guilherme50942025/08/17(日) 05:16
As always thanks Laura!👍
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 06:59
You're welcome! Thank you for your continued support!
@somebodyelseathome2025/08/17(日) 05:00
Good video . When you worked at MS. Did u ever visit other studios in other countries?
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 06:59
I did! I visited Rare and Lionhead. I visited gaming partners in Japan and Russia. When I was in Xbox ATG we would travel to see as many first and third party partners that we could which is how I met people like Itagaki-san.
@aliferestored2025/08/17(日) 04:53
Love your content, Laura! So glad I found you!
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 06:59
Thank you! I'm glad you are here!
@Yayatouu2025/08/17(日) 04:47
I was confused lol, I've read "from zero to hero" at first 😅
@JohnTheodore2025/08/17(日) 04:41
Never trust Mark Rubin
@tebogotwala51852025/08/17(日) 04:31
@nask02025/08/17(日) 04:20
Yet another great video, right on point. Thanks Laura
@OriginRow2025/08/17(日) 04:15
Thank god I am working on UE for my indie multiplayer game
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 07:10
That's awesome! I hope that it goes well for you! Definitely let me know when you have something out there for us to try!
@zero110102025/08/17(日) 04:12
Thanks for more great quality content!
@NorthyToons2025/08/17(日) 03:59
Maybe use a bigger photo of yourself on the thumbnail, almost missed this one.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 04:08
Great catch! Thanks! I just fixed it.
@Gergich2572025/08/17(日) 03:53
Fascinating video as always Laura, would be fascinated to hear you talk about The Finals and its status as a small but still chugging shooter. And has a fascinating history in terms of ceiling, issues, and community engagement.
@greyraven91642025/08/17(日) 03:04
Game is kinda woke also, look at the characters and their artstyle.... gamers generally are men "for shooter" and men want their gritty style.... look at gears of war, Halo, CS, Half Life, classic Battlefield , Unreal, Rainbow six "at least early concept", Hell Let loose, Squad, Arma etc..... is there anything shared with these and XDefiant? nop its closer to fortnite than it is to these games, yet its targeting the audience of the mentioned ones.... in addition to the tech issues ofcourse.
@Jack_Garland782025/08/17(日) 03:03
I like the concept of 'workback schedules' and I can think of the hilarious conclusions it can reach when a project start time has already passed.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 03:42
LOL! I can see that happening with some projects. :)
@Fishster2025/08/17(日) 02:50
AHH Vanguard! I still found it fun. It gave rise to the nickname "chunking". The loading of the world in chunks as you moved through it. Pioneering stuff.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 03:41
Chunking..that's right! I liked the team at Sigil...that's why it was disturbing when they got upset with me because they couldn't hit their own goals. I wish things had worked out differently, but I'm glad they were able to find a home and ship.
@nice_bnuuy2025/08/17(日) 02:40
I think one thing worth emphasizing more with XDefiant is that they were really trying super hard to get COD players to come over it, even to the extent of saying there was no skill based matchmaking (a common complaint with modern COD is with how it handles SBMM, it's bad to the point that a lot of COD players think the concept itself is bad). Outside of XDefiant not being a very well built game, one thing to note with COD players is, despite how bad recent COD games have been, players and content creators still keep buying new COD games. Ubisoft really expected to bring over a lot of people to their COD killer game, unbeknownst to them that the average COD player has severe Stockholm Syndrome.
@AtomicSlugg2025/08/17(日) 02:39
The game was just not fun, it was extremely unbalanced and the game just didn't offer anything new, so I just quit and went back to the finals.
@michaelmemory69382025/08/17(日) 02:36
Love these insights from industry veterans. Keep the videos coming!
@cefalu632025/08/17(日) 02:34
I'll never understand why games don't do sbmm. it wrecks pvp games. Its great for the high skill players who want to pad their stats, but it runs off the casuals. And no game by a major publisher can survive with 500 high skill players and no casuals. If the harcore players really love their game and want it to last a while they'd be in favor of retaining casual players with disposable income.
@Shawnredfield982025/08/17(日) 01:50
I Loved this game. A damn Shame this game failed.
@jawsofwar2025/08/17(日) 01:44
Meanwhile everyone at work (rarely talks about video games) are all talking about battlefield 6. Word of mouth marketing.
@privategaming79322025/08/17(日) 01:40
As a person who likes to break the division games for past 5-6 years, I have to say the architecture of both games certainly don't look like multiplayer game. IMHO I actually think snowdrop was meant as singleplayer engine and multiplayer component was added on top of it in rush fairly late in development.
about matchmaking: I think not having skill based matchmaking is not end of the world but there should be server browser where players can choice what they want. But features from age of cod4 is certainly not what games are build with in mind today.
about matchmaking: I think not having skill based matchmaking is not end of the world but there should be server browser where players can choice what they want. But features from age of cod4 is certainly not what games are build with in mind today.
@the8u92025/08/17(日) 01:05
Oh my gosh, that list of What Went Wrong at the 6:12 mark is so triggering and accurate at the same time. And like the last point you made in this video... it always does feel like the product folks are always fighting people who think that games just grow on trees. I've definitely reached my peak speed in terms of launching games and every time I send one out there, I'm shakin in ma boots because I know it's being held together with duct tape, hahaha... oh lord...
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 01:33
YES! At some point you have to ship and then you hold your breath hoping the duct tape holds. Exciting and terrifying all at once!!
@Snowstorm_ICE2025/08/17(日) 12:55
I love hearing your insights into industry problems. Great video, I look forward to your next one.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 01:33
Thank you!
@keenkolo57672025/08/17(日) 12:55
This just gives off the last decade of game releases. Halo Infinite especially seems like a direct 1:1 comparable.
But others like Concord, Diablo 4, Battlefield 2042; even Call of Duty to a degree. Just seems like the next gen of leadership for gaming dev/publishers are completely unprepared for the challenges.
But others like Concord, Diablo 4, Battlefield 2042; even Call of Duty to a degree. Just seems like the next gen of leadership for gaming dev/publishers are completely unprepared for the challenges.
@3354492862025/08/17(日) 12:51
Love your videos ! I was hoping if in the future you could talk about cheating in games or the "cod-ification" of fps games. I am currently playing bf6 beta and its a pretty bad time unfortunatly for those reasons 😔
@TheLiquidpower2025/08/17(日) 12:32
Gotham City Imposters mentioned, I have become activated. What a wonderful little game, way more depth and fun to be had than it's aesthetic conveyed. Still really miss it.
@Austrv2025/08/17(日) 12:27
I was semi excited for the game, had no idea it released. First i knew of it
@appidydafoo2025/08/17(日) 12:19
7:09 - there's something comical about the average mother being capable of planning her family's weekly meals while these project managers cannot plan beyond the brilliant concept of burning millions to make an also-ran clone that will be dead within a year
@doofenshmirtzevil2025/08/17(日) 12:14
9:11 Unreal engine sucks. All games look like Ai slop and identical (including the terrible optimisation and reaches 30 fps with dlss for some reason)
@NicoparaDEV2025/08/17(日) 12:11
No SBMM is the greatest psyop in gaming
@saadsarnaik2025/08/17(日) 12:11
Wow YT actually recommended me a great channel. Subbed. Excellent video!
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 01:31
Thank you for the sub!
@NorthHollywood2025/08/17(日) 12:10
Its sad that Division: Heartland had to be cancelled to support XDefiant, only for it to eventually shut down less than a year later.
@IAmDaDumb12025/08/17(日) 04:06
I played the division heartland closed beta and I can tell you it was not much of a loss. Almost no one who played it liked it
@RandalphTheBlack2025/08/17(日) 12:00
The gameplay itself was excellent. The eomm removal was refreshing and did make it feel more like when cod was good. I actually 100% completed it on both xbox and ps5. My oldest son and I had a blast playing ❤. R.i.p.
@crux8912025/08/17(日) 11:56
No one can of course look behind closed Doors. Having worked in the industry for over a decade and a half for a Big publisher in a german studio. We had projects,where idea's went into pre production. And coming out of pre production into full development knowing it would fail.
A good example of this was time sync. For example our team leads would go over everything,our teams would work really hard on so many sprints. To see how and what and what we need and to build a timeframe. To Then get a project approved but to hear we have to use engine B instead of engine A because new hires for set engine would not fall into budget and studio A that works with engine B has time around that time to switch People to help out. Did not matter that engine B was not designed for it,did not matter that all our pre production work was invalid now. And it did not matter that the whole planning of thé production was now actually worthless.
But it got approved... So you start the project knowing it Will fail. But there is nothing you can do.
You walk the line and show that you can do it because of course you believe in your own capabilities.
Xdefiant is a very similar story looking from the outside in.
And by the time the game is forced to launch there is just a basic framework nowhere the depth that it should have because all time has been spend to even make it work and make it come together.
As a free to play this is deadly and something that is very hard to recover from.
Did Ubisoft have a hand in this? Of course for sure in the pre production phase. But can Ubisoft be blamed for pulling the plug? No...
The overhaul xdefiant needed was to huge,and the foundation it was build upon from a technical perspective was off from the start. This would Cost allot of time and money to overhaul with no guarantee it Will succeed. In the a end a business Will take business decissions. That is how it goes.
A good example of this was time sync. For example our team leads would go over everything,our teams would work really hard on so many sprints. To see how and what and what we need and to build a timeframe. To Then get a project approved but to hear we have to use engine B instead of engine A because new hires for set engine would not fall into budget and studio A that works with engine B has time around that time to switch People to help out. Did not matter that engine B was not designed for it,did not matter that all our pre production work was invalid now. And it did not matter that the whole planning of thé production was now actually worthless.
But it got approved... So you start the project knowing it Will fail. But there is nothing you can do.
You walk the line and show that you can do it because of course you believe in your own capabilities.
Xdefiant is a very similar story looking from the outside in.
And by the time the game is forced to launch there is just a basic framework nowhere the depth that it should have because all time has been spend to even make it work and make it come together.
As a free to play this is deadly and something that is very hard to recover from.
Did Ubisoft have a hand in this? Of course for sure in the pre production phase. But can Ubisoft be blamed for pulling the plug? No...
The overhaul xdefiant needed was to huge,and the foundation it was build upon from a technical perspective was off from the start. This would Cost allot of time and money to overhaul with no guarantee it Will succeed. In the a end a business Will take business decissions. That is how it goes.
@crux8912025/08/17(日) 05:19
@@laurafryer6321 I totally agree sadly even team leads in allot of work places are just puppets as well. I think the number 1 issue right now is actually getting studio's alligned again. If there isn't to much interference from above,then there is to much interference from people not being alligned in one studio. Or there is distrust. For ex every small change having to go higher up to even get aproved. Creating bottlenecks all around. Where we from upstream constantly where out of sync with the downstream teams.
Just creating awful situations where builds could not even be tested some days . Making people sit twirling there thumbs. Or bugs coming back from QA for system engineering or bugs from internal tools that needed fixing taking more time away. And once that ball go roling.. it keeps rolling... And then you can have the best director and producer on each departement.. Once it goes wrong and it all comes together and you have to manage moral.. it just turns nasty beyond believe.
I always said it and i will keep it saying it. Studio's has grown out of proportion. I know it is needed for what games need to be today. But creating a game with 150 to 250 people and having it take longer. Will always be better and way easier then making a game with 1000 people. It just does not work.
Just creating awful situations where builds could not even be tested some days . Making people sit twirling there thumbs. Or bugs coming back from QA for system engineering or bugs from internal tools that needed fixing taking more time away. And once that ball go roling.. it keeps rolling... And then you can have the best director and producer on each departement.. Once it goes wrong and it all comes together and you have to manage moral.. it just turns nasty beyond believe.
I always said it and i will keep it saying it. Studio's has grown out of proportion. I know it is needed for what games need to be today. But creating a game with 150 to 250 people and having it take longer. Will always be better and way easier then making a game with 1000 people. It just does not work.
@laurafryer63212025/08/17(日) 03:57
Yikes...that's awful. Sorry to hear you've had that experience...and it happens too often. I understand the business decisions..I want to keep team members employed. However, in the example you gave, I would have deferred to the advice of the team making the game and trained the new people on the new tech. If I didn't get to make the decision, then I would have gone back with the new plan versus the team's plan (including the training) and made a case to executives. Thank you for sharing your story! It's good to hear the experience of other game makers.
@ThomasTheTankEngine222025/08/17(日) 11:48
The main issue was the net code imo. You can't have a shooter where most fights are agitating because you're dying behind shit
@sonofdredd2025/08/17(日) 11:44
This whole industry crisis is even more baffling when you think about how easy it is to know exactly what people are demanding and are eager to spend money on. In fact you can't go through the Internet without being slapped in the face with it constantly: youtube comments, tweets, twitch chats... And almos nobody is clamoring for more live service shooters. But they insist on rolling the dice on it in case it works. That's their mindset: it's better to take a shot at a billion dollar game than actually make 200 millions doing something like bloodborne for pc or a new crash bandicoot.
@ZeroEscape20742025/08/17(日) 11:40
Man, I actually really like the game, but like everyone else, the biggest issue for me was hit registeration and connection issues, I hoped things would get smoothed out over the game's life, but I guess it's not meant to be 😢
@HereComeMrCee-Jay2025/08/17(日) 11:33
Most organizations really struggle with project management and change management. My observation is that people under about 35 are alarmingly unwilling or unable to deal with conflict in a constructive way… with some even conflicting discomfort with abuse! Obviously, this makes the problem of managing large difficult projects in a timely and effective way extremely difficult, putting a much higher burden on management. And if middle management is not highly skilled and empowered to deal effectively with some of these folks… then you’ve got almost no chance. I’m encouraged though by some of the high school aged folks I’ve been interacting with lately, maybe not a representative sample, but seemingly much more resilient and grounded.
@gulpirak2025/08/17(日) 11:30
Ms. Fryer, yours have quickly become some of my favorite videos on this entire platform. Thank you!
@DareBizarre2025/08/17(日) 11:29
Great vid, thanks! I'm seeing stuff like this on the art side in games too. Do you maybe have stories regarding the art side of things?
@TecraX22025/08/17(日) 11:10
2:02 - The biggest issue with the matchmaking was that, despite the lack of SBMM, XDefiant still had Disbanding Lobbies. Nothing IMO ruins the flow of the "Gameplay Loop" as much as Disbanding Lobbies, especially when the number of players gets lower...
@BlueGreyWolf2025/08/17(日) 11:09
Your videos are always such a breath of fresh air for understanding how the game industry actually works. I was wondering if you might ever do an analysis on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game? Unlike XDefiant, there hasn’t been much behind-the-scenes reporting, but the game’s history with Gun Interactive, Sumo Nottingham, and later Black Tower Studios feels like a chain of disappointments. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what might've went wrong, especially with the sudden news in May that no more content is coming, dedicated servers are being scrapped for peer-to-peer, and the promised paid and free content were abandoned.
@gregkilby70432025/08/17(日) 10:54
Thank you, Laura.
@nisetsu2025/08/17(日) 10:52
The XDefiant thing makes no sense. They have a highly successful long running online game with Siege which has solved all these networking problems. They could have built XDefiant as a total conversion mod for Siege.
@FactsarevitalEveryday2025/08/17(日) 10:14
Never worked on games but did work on some critical path planning software once (yuck) - I personally loathe 'project planning' and have never used a truly useful package. Too boring to cover the issues. But one was estimates - always a guess - and always cut down by the 'upper management' anyway, to make an 'acceptable' timeframe - waste of my time (has to be done, accepted).
I do not know if game dev is repetitive, very similar tasks, but i worked mostly on 'never been done before'. The imagination to proactively recognise upcoming issues, problems, and design solutions was imo vital, prioritisation, a small really technically competent team with minimal 'paperwork' for the foundational architecture - even if many 'above' could not understand the issues :)
A good supportive manager, very aware but hands off, in IT is rare, unfortunately.
Enjoy your videos, I avoided managing/admin etc like the plague, it is a skill set, but it was 'safer' and less irritating/boring for me to be a techy.
Glad no longer though, came to hate it.
Interesting videos, sorta nostalgic.
I do not know if game dev is repetitive, very similar tasks, but i worked mostly on 'never been done before'. The imagination to proactively recognise upcoming issues, problems, and design solutions was imo vital, prioritisation, a small really technically competent team with minimal 'paperwork' for the foundational architecture - even if many 'above' could not understand the issues :)
A good supportive manager, very aware but hands off, in IT is rare, unfortunately.
Enjoy your videos, I avoided managing/admin etc like the plague, it is a skill set, but it was 'safer' and less irritating/boring for me to be a techy.
Glad no longer though, came to hate it.
Interesting videos, sorta nostalgic.
@FactsarevitalEveryday2025/08/17(日) 10:26
And over the decades far, far too many joined the industry without really any interest in tech, Business grads from Harvard etc plus lots at lower levels who are really unsuited (compsci grads plus) and want to be a higher level title asap :)
@Doc13rain2025/08/17(日) 10:13
Great video, as always !
@Pat3152025/08/17(日) 10:06
Skill-Based Matchmaking is terrible. COD forces it and that's exactly why I quit. It's exhausting.
Defiant would have died faster with SBMM because it alienates everyone.
Defiant would have died faster with SBMM because it alienates everyone.
@Axonteer2025/08/17(日) 10:04
In relation to planning: I often get complaints about "aah you worry too much, why do you think so far ahead all the time, think about that problem if it happens" etc. etc. ...and everytime shit hits the fan im prooven right. You do not need to think trough fully plan b c d and e... but its always good to have a rough idea what to do (or in which direction to walk i prefer to say) if plan A doesnt work out. It allows me to instantly pivot to work on something that works instead of having to - under pressure most often - first find a new solution bevore i even can start working on it.
Mind you - this thinking comes from a electromechanical engineer, im no game dev and if i make a mistake, stuff breaks and at worst people could get hurt (but thats the far extreme end and i would really need to try hard to fail this much). For me it could mean designing a powerline in our station in a way that it can be ajusted on site, or a steel beam to work for various setups... etc.
Anyway, really love your insights into the industry, i often found decissions bafflingly stupid and its really cool to 1) get some insight on why things happend the way they do and 2) that im less wrong in my assumptions why than i thought :-)
Mind you - this thinking comes from a electromechanical engineer, im no game dev and if i make a mistake, stuff breaks and at worst people could get hurt (but thats the far extreme end and i would really need to try hard to fail this much). For me it could mean designing a powerline in our station in a way that it can be ajusted on site, or a steel beam to work for various setups... etc.
Anyway, really love your insights into the industry, i often found decissions bafflingly stupid and its really cool to 1) get some insight on why things happend the way they do and 2) that im less wrong in my assumptions why than i thought :-)
@dimmonkey2025/08/17(日) 09:55
Never played this game because it didn't hit steam. I was done with Ubisoft Connect before this was released.
@DarthGandalfTheGrey2025/08/17(日) 09:37
I'm so glad I found your channel. Your posts are immensely valuable for gaming enthusiasts and project managers. You can be both. ;)
@wadbrant2025/08/17(日) 09:22
Thank you so much for every video you make Laura!
Gold star of our industry!
Gold star of our industry!
@Bow-to-the-absurd2025/08/17(日) 09:14
Sbmm .
No one wants it .
No one wants it .
@FullCreamFermer2025/08/17(日) 08:56
server browser is the only good way to do multiplayer. automatic matchmaking is shit
@zakizdaman2025/08/17(日) 08:47
Can you convince someone at microsoft to make a game like fighter ace?
@niklasakerblad43482025/08/17(日) 08:43
Been in the bizz for 20 years now. Never have I heard a voice of reason such as yours, Laura. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
Nowadays I dont wanna do interviews and I revel in the planning phase of a project because it allows me to think about the idea outside of a fantasy-perspective and instead use my intuition and intellect to perturb and dissect the idea into something real. I used to loathe this aspect, but I was young and self-entitled. Now, if I dont enjoy the planning part of a project I take it as a sign that Im not emotionally attached to the idea and should probably do something else instead.
Nowadays I dont wanna do interviews and I revel in the planning phase of a project because it allows me to think about the idea outside of a fantasy-perspective and instead use my intuition and intellect to perturb and dissect the idea into something real. I used to loathe this aspect, but I was young and self-entitled. Now, if I dont enjoy the planning part of a project I take it as a sign that Im not emotionally attached to the idea and should probably do something else instead.
@marko80952025/08/17(日) 08:39
I know how this looks in practice. Upper management wants to hear a yes. And team leads understand this. So if you don't say yes, you are out. People are promoted based on how pleasing they are, not how realistic and capable they are. But ultimately the goal is not to win on the market by making an incredible game, it's to survive the next milestone. And that is how you win every battle, but you loose the war, because you made a bad game. You end up with a culture of toxic positivity in which people are sacrificed.
@FactsarevitalEveryday2025/08/17(日) 10:51
Good managers of IT projects are very rare.
@Tozohaksji2025/08/17(日) 08:35
Trannjes and poojeets make bad game developers.
Avoid all developers an companies who use and hire them and you will be playing good games again.
You're welcome.
Avoid all developers an companies who use and hire them and you will be playing good games again.
You're welcome.
@DonChups2025/08/17(日) 08:19
Film / Video person here: it's amazing how much the same dynamics and mistakes are shared in film / TV production.
@timogul2025/08/17(日) 08:12
I wonder, there are a lot of people on Youtube that make videos about "how to use Unreal Engine" to do various tasks. How much would it cost for a game publisher to get one of them to learn their internal engines and put together equivalent training videos? Probably less than the time it would normally take to train up a new employee.
@lw88822025/08/17(日) 08:07
I disagree with the idea that game dev attracts the kind of people who don't want to do the hard stuff and planning and technical side of things. If that were true those things would never get done, or projects with that as the underlying goal would never be started. It just doesn't even pass the sniff test.
@leoncca2025/08/17(日) 07:48
I'm a long time PvP shooter player, peaked diamond in Overwatch 2, around 2.4kd 58% winrate in Battlefield 2042 (the game was all right after some months lol), and played probably over 12k hours in a couple decades. XDefiant had solid and fun gunplay, with a longer TTK that is reminiscent of the Halo days, which I actually liked, over what Call of Duty offered. The problem is that operator's abilities, shotguns and snipers were completely antithetical to that gunplay design: you can't just extend the TTK of your game and then leave a ton of skills and weapons that have instant kills or easy ways to get kills in general (wallhack, hard crowd control/stuns, etc.). It felt like the base design of the game is for people to achieve a high skill ceiling, and then you got all these things that were there to give easy kills. Call of Duty is a casual game, that's fine, because all the mechanics are all around that. But this game felt like a chimera that didn't know what it was doing, as if it was indeed made by committee. My best guess is that they had this core idea of a high skill version of Call of Duty/an arena shooter, and then they were forced to add heroes with ultimates, one shot snipers (to the torso btw) and shotguns because "the competitors do it".
...and yeah, don't get me started about how terrible hit registration and latency were in that game, that netcode had some BIG core issues
...and yeah, don't get me started about how terrible hit registration and latency were in that game, that netcode had some BIG core issues
@Leuncode2025/08/17(日) 07:35
Well, my comments keep disappearing and I fail to see which word triggers the filter 😐will leave this here instead of spamming more comments
@fossilfern2025/08/17(日) 07:30
Personally I thought it wasn’t a great game. For me that shooter era from the late 2000s to mid 2010s was awful and Xdefiant reminded me of it so much that I played 3 games and dropped it.
@shaggytoph2025/08/17(日) 07:10
2:09 I don’t think Skill-Based Matchmaking (SBMM / EOMM) is good for video games. To me, it’s just ranked mode in disguise, it kills the casual fun. Social playlists basically don’t exist anymore because of SBMM. Every match felt sweaty & competitive when all I wanted was to relax after work—it’s just manipulative. The system creates artificial highs & lows instead of organic fun, you don’t feel like you’re improving or earning streaks, you feel like the game decides “okay, now you can win” after making you suffer through several awful matches. That’s why so many players burn out quickly from this SBMM games & why CoD games today feel irrelevant after season 2—everyone just moves on to the next not manipulative game. One of the reasons I loved battlefield is because they have server browsers where people can avoid forced matchmaking & you can even freely switch teams once you're in a server.
@supashark2025/08/17(日) 07:10
I had no idea this game had been released till I heard it was being shut down. I knew it was in development for a while, but the launch completely passed me by.
@sashomedia2025/08/17(日) 07:08
Love to see you talking about XDefiant
@nicovandermerwe27472025/08/17(日) 06:47
You can just feel the genuine love for gaming in her videos.
@adgtheone2025/08/17(日) 06:05
This channel is just awesome. I don't know of any other way to get this type of insight into how the industry really works, or what exactly goes into the process of making games. You REALLY pull back the curtain like no other! This is mandatory watching for ANYONE who's into gaming even in the slightest!
@MrPflanze422025/08/17(日) 06:02
Spot on with the importance and impact that proper resource and budget planning have… tied with relevant milestone gates along the multi-year journey… you need to have people who feel accountable for these things on such long and resource-intensive endeavors!!
@Flutter8utter2025/08/17(日) 05:53
I remember waiting for them to put it on Steam since i didn't want to play through that ubisoft launcher and they just didnt lol
@r9bet2025/08/17(日) 05:52
A game can be 'good' and still fail. I could make an amazing plumbing simulator with fantastic UX and standalone servers and no DRM and optimise the shit out of it so it runs well on a potato and it will probably fail because no one wants to pay money to pretend to be a plumber.
@Midekai2025/08/17(日) 05:51
XD was mismanaged from the get go. And Ubisoft's execs share a HUGE portion of the blame. It's a shame too because the game was good aside from a few annoying balance issues and server fumbles. SBMM is hated across a large portion of FPS fans. But if things are too unbalanced, people stop having fun. Yes the same can happen in instances WITH SBMM but the drop off is way more harsh without the system there, unless we wanna go back to server listings, and rolling the dice there.
@razulle2025/08/17(日) 05:27
been in game dev as a PM for 1.5 years (was in vfx for 10) and i've never seen leads so such a bad job at estimating in game dev...
@rofalmatt2025/08/17(日) 05:24
Another failed online fps. Never go online only!!!
@Icipher3532025/08/17(日) 05:16
I'm reminded of the little ditty that Yahtzee Crowshaw once sang. "Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything, tee hee hee!"
@Limozo2025/08/17(日) 05:13
Just from the name, it is incredibly cringe.
@LateNightHalo2025/08/17(日) 04:59
For me at least, the issues with the game run deeper than just engine related issues and server problems. It almost start with the name… Xdefiant: a Ubisoft original.
What’s an “XDefiant” and why did Ubisoft think their IPs were SO strong that all they had to do was put them into an FPS and COD would have a serious competitor?
I can only speak for myself but the allure of stuff like Cod or Battlefield is the military fantasy, wether it’s future warfare, modern combat or world war 1/2.
What Xdefiant pitched was an ugly paintball match with B/C list game characters from Ubisoft games (and not even the good ones. Season 2 featured characters from the heavily criticized Far Cry New Dawn?)
It just felt like a game with no identity or soul.
What’s an “XDefiant” and why did Ubisoft think their IPs were SO strong that all they had to do was put them into an FPS and COD would have a serious competitor?
I can only speak for myself but the allure of stuff like Cod or Battlefield is the military fantasy, wether it’s future warfare, modern combat or world war 1/2.
What Xdefiant pitched was an ugly paintball match with B/C list game characters from Ubisoft games (and not even the good ones. Season 2 featured characters from the heavily criticized Far Cry New Dawn?)
It just felt like a game with no identity or soul.
@TrojanGTA2025/08/17(日) 04:59
The only appealing thing about the game to cod players was no skill based matchmaking other than that it was just a generic fps with hero shooter abilities. Something we’ve seen a lot of times before.
@angelmurchison17312025/08/17(日) 04:56
I fear that the issue you lay out of companies internally misleading themselves out of fear of not receiving the needed support of peers is sort of an epidemic… not only is the economy on an eternal downturn, this country is full of bullshitters. I would be curious to know how commonly this happens across industries and countries. It’s obviously counterproductive to the organization.
If you’ve ever been misled into a sunk cost fallacious project, though, it’s hard to empathize with that behavior.
If you’ve ever been misled into a sunk cost fallacious project, though, it’s hard to empathize with that behavior.
@jorge696962025/08/17(日) 04:46
They wanted a call of duty killer but that isn't a game, it's a fantasy. I have a game in my head that I want to make because I want to play it and maybe others will too. My game idea doesn't begin with me becoming a billionaire.
@Tuandalat2932025/08/17(日) 04:30
The number of interviews the Cyberpunk 2077 developers gave before the game's release was directly proportional to how broken the game was.
@BraveAbandon2025/08/17(日) 04:27
I hope you can boost the audio in the future, it's generally low and I have to turn my speakers to absolute max if I'm doing anything to make noise like dishes etc just to hear you
