Why are people so hung up on "Defiance"? Has it just become a replacement for "Every not picked up Obsidian game"?
We only heard from it in ONE interview, talking about something that happened in 2008/9 and IIRC we had no indication that it was even a Sawyer related project.
When the Microsoft project was cancelled it was hinted in the press that it was a dark fantasy IP, IIRC.
This is definitely not the sci-fi property that Fader et al were working on.
Gaming press usually makes a lot of assumptions (just as they do now). As for direct information we had nothing, really.