Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot Would Like To See XDefiant Become A “Serious Esport” As The Shooter Clocks 11 Million Players

Following the excitement of this month’s Ubisoft Forward, the company’s CEO Yves Guillemot sat down with a member of staff and discussed what he sees for the company going forward. For the most part, the discussion focused on Games as a Service and the future of the Assassin’s Creed series.

The big takeaway on the Assassin’s Creed franchise is that players can expect regular game drops, but they also need to expect those games to be different from each other. Basically, if you prefer one type of AC game over another, you won’t be getting it every time.

As for Games as a Service, Guillemot emphasized the need to listen to players. The primary example he gave was XDefiant, which he pointed out has had some issues, but still has 11 million players. He believes that number will go up based on the work the dev team is doing on Season One with the aid of player feedback.

When asked what his hopes for XDefiant are going forward, Guillemot stated that aside from regular updates, he would like to see the shooter as a “serious esport”. He believes there’s no limit to what can be achieved with the game. Still, he notes that the dev team listens and communicates with players, which he believes is “crucial”.

And yes, AI did come up as a topic, but it only really came up as a discussion of making smarter NPCs. The full discussion can be read on the Ubisoft site.