Ubisoft’s XDefiant Is No Longer A “Tom Clancy” Game

Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, Ubisoft’s upcoming free-to-play shooter that has drawn comparisons to Call of Duty, no longer carries the Tom Clancy name. It is now simply XDefiant.

The reason for the change stems from Ubisoft making the decision to include “factions from games outside of the Tom Clancy universe.” While previously announced factions from games like Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and The Division will still be included, XDefiant won’t exclusively feature Tom Clancy-adjacent groups from other Ubisoft titles.

XDefiant has also received a new logo as a result. Gone is the punk-rock, graffiti-heavy logo and promotional materials from the game’s 2021 announcement, replaced by a new logo that is more easily described as slick and modern.

The rebranding of the game comes alongside Ubisoft announcing “Insider Sessions” for the shooter that will let players from the general public participate in testing sessions alongside developers. The tests will start with a small number of players on PC and eventually expand to other platforms and more participants.

Ubisoft says it learned a lot from the game’s previous closed testing period last year. Those who have previously signed up for those earlier XDefiant tests won’t need to sign up again and will automatically be in the potential player pool for the upcoming Insider Sessions. The test sessions will be under NDA.

While XDefiant is no longer an official “Tom Clancy” game, Ubisoft still has other free-to-play Tom Clancy shooters in the works in the form of Ghost Recon Frontline and The Division Heartland. A closed test for Ghost Recon Frontline was delayed indefinitely shortly after the game’s announcement, with Ubisoft stating it was in the game’s best interest to postpone the test in order to create “the best experience possible.”