Ubisoft Begins Limited Playtests Of XDefiant, Drops Tom Clancy's Name

Whenever we create tags for games on this site, we usually leave out "possessives" that come before the game's proper title. The most obvious example of this is Ubisoft's library of games that formally include "Tom Clancy's" before their titles, such as Rainbow Six Siege and The Division. Hardly any gamers include TC's name before those titles when describing them, so why should we?

Ubisoft itself is also going to take that approach with one of its more curious upcoming titles to bear Tom Clancy's name. Tom Clancy's XDefiant, the free-to-play shooter mashup of factions and characters from various titles in the Clancyverse, is dropping the late author's name and will simply be known as XDefiant, Ubisoft revealed earlier this week. That's not due to any innate desire to disassociate Clancy from the game -- though if I were him (and I was still alive), I might want to -- but because XDefiant will now include factions from outside the Tom Clancy universe.

That declaration was part of a larger announcement of a new initiative, XDefiant Insider Sessions, whereby a select group of players on PC would get the chance to play the game, including those new factions, and give feedback to the developers. You can register for a chance to participate in these gameplay sessions on the XDefiant site.

Now, if Ubisoft would only drop NFTs the way they've dropped Tom Clancy's name from XDefiant...