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Free-to-Play MMO Looter Shooter Defiance Is Back Online

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On April 21, 2025

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Summary

Four years after going offline, Defiance has been relaunched for PC.
The revived version of the game is the 2013 original with all of its content updates.
Defiance 2050 might also make a comeback, based on fan response to this relaunch. Ditto for the console versions of Defiance.

Free-to-play MMO looter shooter Defiance is back from the dead. However, its return is so far limited to PC.

Developed by now-defunct American studio Trion Worlds, Defiance was envisioned as a video game tie-in to the eponymous Syfy TV show that ran for three seasons, ending in 2015. It was originally released for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC in April 2013 as a premium game, but went free-to-play just 14 months later. A reimagined version of the looter shooter, Defiance 2050, debuted in July 2018. The relaunch didn’t go too well, with Defiance 2050 becoming one of the worst-rated free-to-play games of its time. German company Gamigo eventually acquired Trion Worlds and shut down both versions of Defiance in April 2021.

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In March 2025, publisher Fawkes Games announced that it had acquired rights to Defiance, with plans to relaunch it in the immediate future. This promise came to fruition on April 18, when the PC version of the game went back online. Defiance can currently only be downloaded directly from Fawkes. It’s unclear whether the publisher plans to bring the game to Steam or any other storefront.

Defiance 2050 Is Still Offline

The newly relaunched version of the game is the 2013 original, albeit with pretty much all the content updates that it has received over the years. Fawkes previously stated that the goal of the relaunch isn’t just to bring back the game, but to revive its entire online community. To that end, the company will carefully monitor the response to the relaunch, and adjust its plans accordingly. If the PC version of the game generates enough momentum, Fawkes is willing to “explore the possibility” of bringing back the console versions of Defiance, the publisher said in a prepared statement. The likelihood of Defiance 2050 returning will also presumably depend on community response to the original’s re-release.

The relaunched version of Defiance is described as a work-in-progress, as Fawkes is still in the process of ironing out some technical issues. For example, jumping between instances—such as Expeditions, PvP, or the tutorial—can currently lead to disconnections, and logging in may require several attempts. Fawkes is still frequently restarting the looter shooter’s servers in order to apply emergency fixes, so the overall experience may remain inconsistent while this process continues.

Do Old Defiance Accounts Still Work With the New Version of the Game?

Old Defiance accounts won’t work with the relaunched version of the looter shooter. Anyone interested in playing this revival will hence need to create a new account and start from scratch. Fawkes said it’s committed to supporting Defiance long-term, but currently only has a “skeleton crew” working on it until it can assess the overall level of interest in the game.

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