NICKMERCS argues XDefiant is off to a “great start” but explains why it could fizzle out

NICKMERCS is loving Ubisoft’s fledgling Call of Duty rival XDefiant in the early runnings, but warned in his latest Twitch stream that the hype could die off quickly.

A fortnight removed from his attempted “cancellation,” as he himself put it, NICKMERCS is back in the public eye, regularly streaming on Twitch once again. Despite the surrounding controversy and the ramifications that saw Activision remove his custom skin in Call of Duty, the popular streamer has only continued to grow across social media in the aftermath.

Now shifting his sights onto what many are eyeing as real competition to CoD’s dominant position on the FPS throne, Nick was among the first to jump into XDefiant’s latest testing period ahead of its full release later this year.

After a hectic six-and-a-half-hour grind, he was definitely left impressed by Ubisoft’s new title, but NICKMERCS warned that the hype could die out rather quickly if devs don’t follow certain steps post-launch.

Giving his initial take after the day one grind, the veteran FPS player praised XDefiant’s “great maps” and “great gameplay,” claiming it’s off to a “great start” overall.

“Big congrats to XDefiant and the whole team over there. It’s really hard to put out a product that plays good and feels good off [the] rip, and I think it really does play good and feel good,” NICKMERCS said. However, this great start may only get Ubisoft so far in the highly competitive FPS market, he then explained. “That right there, that product, it will get old fast.

“The truth is, they’ve gotta start making some big announcements. Hopefully they have a content [roadmap] they’re gonna push out over the next couple of months. They need that, they need to keep the momentum.”

One such way of keeping the ball rolling after launch is through honing in on the competitive community, NICKMERCS argued. Through the likes of a “ranked mode” followed by full-fledged “competitive seasons” and even bigger community “tournaments,” that’s how XDefiant will maintain interest in the weeks and months ahead, he claimed.

Beyond that, he circled back to the one genre he frequents more than anything, Battle Royales. “Dream scenario, then I’d roll out a battle royale. That’s what I would do, if everything was as easy as I said.”
So while XDefiant is off to a “great start” in his eyes, NICKMERCS clearly has his concerns over its long-term potential. We’ll just have to wait and see what Ubisoft has in store for its future content pipeline as we draw closer to its full launch.