Ubisoft never learns. Just five months after permanently shutting down XDefiant in June 2025, the company is already deep into development on another competitive multiplayer shooter. Leaked screenshots and insider reports reveal Project Scout, a sci-fi first-person shooter built on Unreal Engine 5 with heavy Apex Legends inspiration. The gaming community’s reaction has been swift and merciless, with players dubbing it YDefiant and XDefiant 2: Electric Boogaloo before the game even has a proper announcement.
The leak came from Shiiny77, a well-known Rainbow Six Siege and XDefiant insider with a solid track record. On November 11, 2025, they revealed that Ubisoft is working on a large-scale competitive FPS set in a sci-fi universe, featuring full crossplay support across platforms. More concerning than the leak itself is what the insider said about actually seeing the gameplay. They described it as very sci-fi looking and warned they don’t think people will like it. That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement from someone who has access to early builds.
The Leaked Screenshots Tell a Story
Shortly after Shiiny77’s initial reveal, another leaker known as 6leaksgg posted two screenshots allegedly from Project Scout. The first image shows what appears to be a loading or title screen with Project Scout displayed over a vast futuristic landscape. There’s a tall spire rising in the distance, neon skies, and robotic machinery in the foreground. A mechanical character stands prominently with debug text visible mentioning texture streaming delays. The tagline reads All risk, all reward, which sounds suspiciously like every other competitive shooter’s marketing pitch.
The second leaked screenshot is more revealing, showing an early gameplay view from a first-person perspective. A weapon called The Bulldog is visible, along with ability icons, a purple Starlight Energy meter, weapon slots, crew level indicators, a compass, and a minimap. The environment looks like it’s in greybox or early testing phase, with colorful placeholder structures and basic lighting. Everything about the UI and gameplay elements screams battle royale or hero shooter heavily inspired by Apex Legends, which tracks with earlier reports that Ubisoft was working on an Apex-inspired competitive game.
XDefiant’s Ghost Haunts This Project
You can’t talk about Project Scout without addressing the elephant in the room. XDefiant launched in May 2024 with massive fanfare, reaching over 11 million unique players in its first month and becoming Ubisoft’s fastest-growing title at the time. Then reality hit. By August 2024, concurrent player counts had dropped below 20,000. In December 2024, Ubisoft announced they were discontinuing development, stating the game was too far away from reaching the results required to enable further significant investment in the very demanding free-to-play FPS market.
The shutdown became official on June 3, 2025, when the servers went permanently offline. XDefiant became completely unplayable with no offline mode available. The closure resulted in Ubisoft closing its San Francisco and Osaka production studios and ramping down its Sydney site, with 277 people departing across those locations. It was a catastrophic failure that cost hundreds of people their jobs and wasted years of development effort. And now, barely half a year later, Ubisoft is chasing the same dream with a different sci-fi skin.
Why The Community Is Skeptical
The gaming community’s response to Project Scout has been brutal mockery mixed with genuine concern. Players are calling it YDefiant, Tom Clancy’s HyperDefiant, and XDefiant 2, predicting it will meet the same fate as its predecessors. The skepticism isn’t baseless. Ubisoft has an abysmal track record with live-service competitive shooters in recent years. Hyper Scape launched as a free-to-play battle royale in 2020 and was shut down in 2022. XDefiant lasted just over a year from launch to shutdown. Both games had decent concepts and strong initial player numbers but failed to maintain engagement.
The visual similarities between Project Scout’s leaked screenshots and XDefiant haven’t gone unnoticed. The UI design, the sci-fi aesthetic, the ability-based gameplay, it all feels like familiar territory that Ubisoft has already proven they can’t successfully maintain. Add in the insider warning that people might not like the gameplay, and you have a recipe for disaster that’s already baking before anyone’s even tasted it.
The Apex Legends Problem
Earlier reports suggested Ubisoft was working on a competitive shooter that takes heavy inspiration from EA’s Apex Legends. The leaked Project Scout screenshots seem to confirm this direction. The problem is that Apex Legends already exists and has a massive, dedicated player base. The hero shooter and battle royale markets are completely saturated with established games like Apex, Fortnite, Valorant, and Overwatch 2 dominating the landscape.
Launching a new competitor in this space requires either a revolutionary hook that sets you apart or the ability to sustain a game through its inevitable rocky launch period. Ubisoft has demonstrated with XDefiant and Hyper Scape that they don’t have the patience or long-term commitment required for the latter. And nothing about Project Scout’s early screenshots suggests they’ve found the former. It looks like another competent but derivative entry in an overcrowded genre where competent but derivative equals death.
Ubisoft’s Live Service Addiction
Project Scout represents Ubisoft’s continued obsession with cracking the live-service code despite repeated failures. The publisher has been restructuring throughout 2024 and 2025, including finalizing a major deal where Tencent took a 25% stake in a newly formed Ubisoft subsidiary that houses franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The company has gone through layoffs, project cancellations, and internal reshuffling, yet they keep returning to the same well that’s poisoned them multiple times.
The focus on live-service games makes financial sense on paper. A successful live-service title generates continuous revenue through battle passes, cosmetics, and seasonal content while maintaining an engaged community for years. The problem is that Ubisoft keeps making games that fail to retain players past the initial launch window. Without sustained player engagement, the entire live-service model collapses. Project Scout needs to be different, but every indication suggests it’s more of the same.
What Needs to Happen for Success
If Ubisoft actually wants Project Scout to succeed where XDefiant and Hyper Scape failed, they need to fundamentally change their approach. First, the game needs a unique identity beyond being a sci-fi Apex Legends. Players need a compelling reason to abandon established games they’ve invested hundreds of hours into. Second, Ubisoft needs to commit to multi-year support regardless of initial player counts. XDefiant’s death spiral started when early player drops led to reduced investment, which led to fewer updates, which led to more players leaving.
Third, the game needs flawless technical execution at launch. XDefiant had registration issues, matchmaking problems, and balance complaints that soured the experience for many early adopters. Competitive shooter players have zero tolerance for technical problems when polished alternatives exist. Finally, Ubisoft needs realistic expectations. Not every live-service game will be a Fortnite or Apex Legends. Building a sustainable game with a smaller but dedicated community is better than chasing unsustainable growth targets and shutting down when you don’t hit them.
FAQs
What is Project Scout?
Project Scout is the codename for an unannounced sci-fi competitive first-person shooter reportedly in development at Ubisoft. Leaked screenshots from November 11, 2025, show an early-stage game built on Unreal Engine 5 with large-scale multiplayer, ability-based gameplay, and full crossplay support across platforms.
When did XDefiant shut down?
XDefiant’s servers went permanently offline on June 3, 2025. Ubisoft announced the discontinuation in December 2024, stopped new downloads and purchases immediately, and kept the game running for six months to allow players to finish Season 3. The shutdown resulted in studio closures and 277 employees departing.
Who leaked the Project Scout information?
The initial information came from Shiiny77, a well-known Rainbow Six Siege and XDefiant insider with a reliable track record. They revealed the project on November 11, 2025, describing it as a large-scale sci-fi FPS. Screenshots were later shared by another leaker called 6leaksgg, showing early development builds and UI elements.
Why is the community calling it YDefiant?
The gaming community has mockingly dubbed Project Scout as YDefiant, Tom Clancy’s HyperDefiant, and XDefiant 2: Electric Boogaloo due to skepticism about Ubisoft’s ability to succeed with another competitive shooter. The visual similarities to XDefiant and Ubisoft’s recent track record of failed live-service shooters have fueled the sarcastic nicknames.
Is Project Scout inspired by Apex Legends?
Yes, earlier reports suggested Ubisoft was working on a competitive shooter heavily inspired by Apex Legends. The leaked Project Scout screenshots appear to confirm this, showing hero shooter elements, ability meters, squad-based UI features, and a sci-fi setting similar to Respawn’s battle royale game.
Has Ubisoft officially announced Project Scout?
No, Ubisoft has not made any official announcement about Project Scout. All information comes from leaked screenshots and insider reports from November 2025. The project appears to be in early development based on the greybox environments and placeholder graphics visible in leaked images.
What happened to Ubisoft’s other competitive shooters?
Ubisoft’s recent competitive shooter history includes multiple failures. Hyper Scape launched as a free-to-play battle royale in 2020 and shut down in 2022. XDefiant launched in May 2024, reached 11 million players in its first month, but shut down in June 2025 due to inability to retain players and meet financial targets.
What does the insider say about Project Scout’s gameplay?
Shiiny77, the insider who leaked Project Scout’s existence, stated they have seen gameplay footage and described it as very sci-fi looking. More concerning, they said I don’t think people will like it, suggesting the gameplay may not resonate with competitive shooter audiences based on what they’ve witnessed so far.
Conclusion
Project Scout represents either admirable persistence or corporate insanity, depending on your perspective. Ubisoft has lost hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of employees chasing the live-service competitive shooter dream, yet here they are trying again with another sci-fi multiplayer game that looks suspiciously like their previous attempts. The early leaked screenshots show a game in development, but they also show a lack of clear identity beyond being another entry in an impossibly crowded genre. Without a revolutionary hook or long-term commitment that Ubisoft has never demonstrated, Project Scout feels destined to become another cautionary tale about chasing trends instead of creating experiences that players actually want. The community’s skepticism isn’t cynicism, it’s pattern recognition. Ubisoft has burned this bridge twice already. Whether Project Scout represents a third failure or an unlikely redemption arc won’t be clear for years, but betting against Ubisoft’s track record in this space feels like the safest wager in gaming right now.