Xdefiant's next beta will "look towards the future" and will be open to everyone

Someone aiming at an enemy player through a scope
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The executive producer for Ubisoft San Francisco, Mark Rubin, just announced that Xdefiant will be getting another open session right before its release date. 

Rubin took to Ubisoft's Showcase during E3 2023 to confirm that Xdefiant will have its open session from June 21-23, available for all players on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Opening the new FPS game to everyone in hopes of figuring out net code, controller tuning, "and of course to stress out the servers as much as possible", Rubin says. 

“Community has been at the core of this development”, Rubin continues. “With 28 public tests so far, with the recent closed beta being the largest”. So far over 1 million players have jumped into Xdefiant, and this number is only expected to increase.  

Xdefiant is also looking at launching later this year, hopefully during mid-2023. The six week Pre-season will have all of the launch content including 14 maps, 5 modes, 24 weapons, and 5 factions. While the year one is set to have four new “meta-changing” factions, 12 new weapons, and 12 new maps, "all inspired by Ubisoft's amazing worlds".

“Year one is going to have some great content all focused on creating a fun arcade FPS experience”, Rubin says. "We are committed to our community to make Xdefiant the best place to compete and to have fun". 

While it has a long way to go to beating out some of the classics like Overwatch 2, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. Hopefully, if this sentiment is anything to go by, Xdefiant will be making an appearance on our best FPS games list when it finally releases.

Keep up with all of our coverage this announcement season with all of our E3 2023 coverage.

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Elie Gould
Features Writer

Elie is a Features Writer for TechRadar Gaming, here to write about anything new or slightly weird. Before writing for TRG, Elie studied for a Masters at Cardiff University JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs or editing the gaming section for their student publications. 

Elie’s first step into gaming was through Pokémon but they've taken the natural next step in the horror genre. Any and every game that would keep you up at night is on their list to play - despite the fact that one of Elie’s biggest fears is being chased. 

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