‘XDefiant”s Tom Clancy branding being removed by Ubisoft

Ubisoft has removed the name of deceased author Tom Clancy from all branding of its upcoming shooter XDefiant, as the game will now include groups from outside of the “Tom Clancy universe”.

Ubisoft has confirmed that Tom Clancy’s name has been pulled from the title of XDefiant, an upcoming 6v6 shooter that the studio announced in July 2021.

The game’s new logo appears in a recent blog post from Ubisoft, which revealed that fans can now apply to help test the game on PC by playing “with and against our development team” via Insider Sessions.

These sessions will let players “get hands on in-progress features and provide feedback,” and Ubisoft says that those involved will be “introduced to Factions from games outside of the Tom Clancy universe”.

Because of that, Ubisoft says “the game will now be known as XDefiant“.

Tom Clancy’s name being attached to the shooter was the subject of controversy when it was announced, due to the game bearing little resemblance to Clancy’s work as an author.

Invitations to XDefiant‘s Insider Sessions started to go out on March 15, however the testing is only available to PC players in certain regions.

Though XDefiant‘s last rounds of testing have been held behind closed doors, last July Ubisoft shared a first look at two of the maps that appeared in a 2021 player test.

Both maps – named Emporium and Air & Space – were based on levels from both of Ubisoft’s The Division games, which released in 2016 and 2019 respectively.

When XDefiant was first announced, Ubisoft revealed that it would be a 6v6 online shooter that “combines intense gunplay with personalised loadouts and specialised factions”.

In other gaming news, the latest Lost Ark update has fixed an issue caused by a switch to daylight savings. In response to the issue – as well as a separate problem with the Tytalos Guardian Raid – the update has also provided compensation to players.