A few years ago, Ubisoft announced a free-to-play shooter XDefiantand early access testing was planned to begin in 2021. However, this project faced delays.
Recently, it was postponed again. This latest delay was due to «serious technical issues» related to the game’s network code. This problem was already described in November 2023. However, according to Insider Gaming, the problems are much deeper. They are caused by the activities of several project managers and directors. The vast majority of the team calls them «The Boys Club». Although it is not only about men.
Initially, The Boys Club was the name given to a few select individuals who created constant problems for game development. But over the years, this group has grown to about a dozen men and women. Sources said that this group was responsible for missed deadlines, crises, a toxic work environment, and the dismissal of several people who left the project.
«There were many cases of people crying, having mental breakdowns, or no longer caring about their well-being because of the toxic environment created by the Club».
Although there is no exact date when «club» turned into something sinister, several sources said that this change became most apparent around the time the company dropped the Tom Clancy brand. This was publicly announced in early 2022. This change meant more freedom for the project. But in fact, The Boys Club took advantage of this freedom to make unnecessary changes, which affected the game’s development.
Over time, things got so bad that the toxic work culture in the XDefiant project, crises, and internal problems became so widespread that knowledge of The Boys Club even spread to other Ubisoft studios.
One of the members of The Boys Club reportedly has no design experience or experience working with people, but was given director’s powers because of a personal friendship. As a result, developers were given responsibilities beyond their original job descriptions, ordered to work overtime to complete tasks, and their suggestions were simply brushed aside.
«The Boys’ Club is a closed group of protected individuals who consider themselves better than everyone else and do whatever they want without any consequences», said one of the developers working on the project.
At the end of 2023, the XDefiant team faced a huge problem with the network code. However, this problem had been known for years and could have been avoided if management had listened to the rest of the team. But since the suggestions were not coming from their bubble (the Club), the advice was always ignored.
The network code problem arose from the significant changes made by The Boys Club after they abandoned the Tom Clancy brand. This led to a fierce desire to chase Call of Duty and add new factions, maps, and other features that had to be created from scratch. And when they were implemented, the Club repeatedly decided to cancel them. As a result, the developers became increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in the project.
«They’ll pick a feature of their choice [similar to COD] and tell the design/production teams to come back later when they’ve made the appropriate changes. Even when the team makes those changes, The Boys Club will come up with something else, and the process will repeat for months. All of this led to the feature finally being implemented in the game, or being cut out entirely».
Another source said:
«Constantly changing approved features or adding new features that don’t really affect the game has set us back significantly, maybe a year or so».
XDefiant is not currently canceled. After an insanely popular open test, Ubisoft hopes that the game can become the free-to-play hit they have been looking for for several years. However, its release date has yet to be announced.
In addition, it is worth noting that the disclosure of information about toxic working conditions at Ubisoft had unexpected consequences. Those bloggers who covered the situation on YouTube started receiving strikes from Ubisoft for copyright infringement.
Source: Insider Gaming