Ubisoft's new shooter has been delayed after failing certification

XDefiant, the upcoming shooter from Ubisoft, has been delayed after failing to pass certification.

An update from Ubisoft explains in detail the process by which a game is submitted for certification by companies like PlayStation and Xbox. The companies don't check for functionality bugs that might affect gameplay, but they do look out for what are referred to as compliance bugs, which Ubisoft says "relate to the systems and overall experience that the first parties expect from games on their platform."

XDefiant failed to pass certification after being reviewed for compliance, which is why Ubisoft is moving the release date back to an unknown date. "At the end of July, we started this process, and we got our first results back by mid-August which was a Not Pass," says executive producer Mark Rubin. "We realized then that we had more work related to compliance than we had anticipated."

Rubin says the original plan, assuming XDefiant passed certification, was to release the game at the end of August, but since the studio now has to go back and fix whatever caused the game to fail certification, there are now two likely scenarios. 

The first is, Ubisoft resubmits XDefiant for certification and it passes "cleanly," and in that case it should launch by "mid-to-end of September." However, another possibility is that the game gets a conditional pass requiring Ubisoft to release a Day 1 patch with additional fixes to ensure compliance. If that happens, expect XDefiant to come out around early to mid-October.

XDefiant is a free-to-play 6v6 arcade shooter with arena modes like zone control alongside more linear objective modes like payload pushing. And if you're wondering whether it has what it takes to convince Overwatch 2 and Counter-Strike players to migrate over, your best bet is reading our XDefiant hands-on preview.

In the meantime, here are the best online games to play today.