To many publishers, the explosive rise of free-to-play games promised near-endless earning potential, thanks to microtransactions providing extraordinary amounts of passive income. In 2021, for instance, Call of Duty publisher Activision’s live-service titles generated a staggering $5.1 billion from in-game purchases alone. The lucrative recurring revenue stream inspired other big-name publishing outfits to pursue the development of similar interactive experiences; a number of them chased the trend to their own detriment. Ubisoft, in particular, buckled beneath the weight of its high expectations in this respect, evidenced by the company canceling multiple work-in-progress games. However, even some titles that survived the culling and hit the market fell short, such was the case with XDefiant.