XDefiant Won't Have "Pay-To-Win Mechanics," Ubisoft Says

Ubisoft's upcoming tactical shooter XDefiant is set to launch this week, and the publisher detailed the game's "in-game purchase philosophy" in a recent blog post. Most notably, the post says that XDefiant will allow players to unlock all purchasable "gameplay-impacting" content through challenges--or, as Ubisoft puts it, the game will lack "pay-to-win" mechanics.

The blog post offers an example in the form of the DedSec faction, which players can either purchase or earn via an in-game challenge by collecting 700,000 XP. It also details how the game will reward the player's time through traditional live game mechanics such as free battle pass rewards, daily and weekly challenges, weapon mastery, and more. Ubisoft ends the post by listing the various content types in XDefiant, including the expected premium battle pass and a variety of character and weapon cosmetics.

Often described as Ubisoft's answer to the Call of Duty series, XDefiant will launch May 21 in preseason. The publisher recently revealed that the free-to-play shooter will not have skill-based matchmaking in its casual play mode, a major contrast to Call of Duty. However, it will not feature ranked play at launch, with Ubisoft stating that the feature will come in a later season. In other Ubisoft news, the publisher recently canceled The Division Heartland to put more resources into XDefiant and the Rainbow Six series.