Following the cancellation of Ubisoft’s XDefiant, industry veteran Mark Rubin is hanging up his hat and has no plans to make any more video games.
Developer Mark Rubin, best known for his work on the Modern Warfare series (original trilogy), announces that he no longer wants to be part of the industry following the flop of XDefiant.
In a lengthy post on X, he goes into more detail about the reasons for the failure of Ubisoft’s multiplayer shooter andbids farewell to a life that will now revolve more around his family
The end for XDefiant, the end for Mark Rubin
Two days ago, Ubisoft pulled the plug on XDefiant and the servers went offline. It’s the end of the road, as there is no offline support for the pure multiplayer game.
The French publisher’s shooter hope actually got off to a good start. Rubin also sums this up in his X post.
It’s a sad day for fans of XDefiant and for all of the passionate devs that worked so hard on this game. I want to thank everyone who played it and everyone who promoted it, whether you were a big content creator or just a fan. Every voice mattered.
In fact, I would say something…— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) June 4, 2025
He begins his announcement by thanking his colleagues and also the fans of the game:
It’s a sad day for fans of XDefiant and for all the passionate developers who worked so hard on this game. I want to thank everyone who played the game and everyone who supported it, whether you were a big content creator or just a fan. Every voice mattered.
After more than two decades, Rubin is now retiring from the industry. He writes:
As for me, I’ve decided to leave the industry and spend more time with my family, so unfortunately you won’t be hearing about me making a new game.
However, he hoped that other developers would now take up the baton and“make games that care about players, treat them with respect, and listen to what they have to say.”
Formative for the shooter genre
Rubin worked as executive producer at Infinity Ward for about a decade and was responsible for the entire first Modern Warfare trilogy Parts 1 and 2 in particular are among the best CoD games. That’s why you’ll find them at the top of our ranking.
With XDefiant, the shooter expert wanted to build on past successes, but according to his own statement, technical problems were the main obstacle. Rubin cites Ubisoft’s own Snowdrop engine as a mistake, as it was not designed to support the developers’ vision.
The end of XDefiant didn’t just bring big changes for Mark Rubin. Ubisoft closed or downsized three studios as a result of the flop and laid off 277 employees.
