XDefiant devs rush emergency fix as Season 1 update tanks PS5 performance

XDefiant players on PS5 are in luck as developers have rushed out an emergency patch in light of devastating performance issues that snuck in through the Season 1 update.

While XDefiant’s hotly-anticipated Season 1 update introduced a wealth of new content to Ubisoft’s FPS, it also brought with it some unwelcome and unplanned issues.

The already controversial Spiderbot ability only became more powerful, a problem devs are well aware of an looking to rectify in “the next non-emergency patch.” Though even more damaging was a hit to performance for those on PS5.

Players on the console immediately began reporting issues upon Season 1’s launch on July 2. Frame rate was severely impacted by the major update, as hundreds of players flocked to social media to have their voices heard. Two days later, and in an emergency update on Independence Day, these issues have allegedly been stamped out.

XDefiant Executive Producer Mark Rubin broke news of the update late on July 4, revealing devs had been hard at work through the American holiday.

“We were able to do a quick patch for PS5 that is live now,” he confirmed. “It improves the situation for those running at 60hz who were having major frame spikes.”

While the rushed patch “should be better” than before, Rubin did clarify the issue isn’t completely in the rearview mirror. XDefiant players on PS5 can expect a “full fix for both 60hz and 120hz” in the week starting July 7, so not a long wait. “As soon as we can get it through testing and cert,” the full resolution will be implemented.

Further explaining the situation in a thread on X (formerly Twitter), Rubin stressed how this emergency fix came out “lightning fast.” Considering devs have to “find the bug, fix the bug, test the bug, then send it to Sony so they can test the bug, then schedule a roll-out,” it certainly was a huge effort, especially on a national holiday.