XDefiant Executive Producer Takes To Twitter To Talk Monetization, Release Date, Ping Issues, And More

XDefiant Executive Producer Mark Rubin has been quite active on Twitter recently answering fan questions and concerns. He's been addressing issues such as ping for Oceania players, free content, and customizable HUDs in the upcoming shooter.

First up is ping issues in matchmaking for Oceania players, with Mark saying:

Agreed. What we've done is set some numbers such that if we really can't find good ping games then it will mix input MM. These are numbers we can tweak. We'll do our best to make sure everyone is having the best experience possible. Also, you can choose to turn off input MM.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 17, 2023

He has also addressed the importance of having free content in a game that focuses on microtransactions for income:

Yes, even though we are a free-to-play game and rely on microtransactions, we want to always have cool free content to grind for.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 16, 2023

He goes on to reiterate that no gameplay is behind a paywall in XDefiant, and that even weapons of the battle pass are on the free track and just require some grinding:

Weapons are on the free track of the BP. So just need to grind for them. Factions can be bought or grinded without paying. Basically no gameplay behind pay wall. Just cosmetics.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 9, 2023

Mark also wants to add a fully customizable HUD to XDefiant later down the road:

Definitely, not something we can do for launch but at some point post-launch I actually want to add a fully customizable HUD so you can move elements around and possibly resize as well. A lot of work so we'll see when it can be done.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 13, 2023

The launch window for XDefiant is still slated as "summer" of this year:

This is a process that can take some time though so please bear with us. Still aiming for later this summer! To be clear we will be launching on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S (aka current gen) first with other platforms coming later. Will update again as soon as we have more info.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) July 7, 2023