It’s no surprise to anyone, even Phil Spencer wanted to apologize for the messy results of Redfall, which is published by Bethesda. He “takes full responsibility for providing a game that should have been very good”
As a reminder, Redfall was released on May 2nd, 2023 and was very poorly received by many critics. Also, at the time I’m writing this, it has the bad grade of 56/100. That’s a “significantly lower” rating than Microsoft’s “internal ratings,” Phil points out.
But for the creators of Redfall, the weak reception was not a big surprise. In fact, according to more than a dozen people who worked on the game, their project suffered from terrible management, frequent turnover, and a constant lack of staff.
Inspired beginnings
To put all of this into context, remember that Redfall development began in 2018. At the time, ZeniMax — the parent company of Bethesda Softworks — was looking for an acquisition. Behind the scenes, the company encouraged its studios to create games that could generate revenue on top of initial sales, a popular trend known as “Games as a Service” or “GaaS” that gained momentum in the late 2010s lucrative achievements like over watch, Fourteen days or Apex Legends.
SeniMax sensed the trend and therefore made sure to integrate microtransactions into its games. At this point, we could see online monetization in Fallout, Doom, and Wolfenstein. Unfortunately, Arkane Studios’ (bethesda’s) specialty remains the immersive sim, with games like Deathloop or Dishonored designed to be enjoyed alone. Therefore, due to these habits, it was difficult for the developers to design a multiplayer adventure.
In addition, according to Arkane inside sources, it was constantly understaffed. The studio’s Austin office employed fewer than 100 people! To give you an idea: Behind Fortuite are more than 700 employees. Eventually, even additional support from ZeniMax’s Roundhouse Studios in Wisconsin and other outsourcing firms could not fill the gaps.
A hope with redemption
The setbacks the studio suffered were fatal. Experienced workers who had no interest in developing a multiplayer game left the company in droves. By the end of Redfall’s development, about 70% of the Austin employees who had worked on Prey were as explained Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, on September 21, 2020, Microsoft bought ZeniMax for $7.5 billion. It was an ambitious move that gave Xbox control of lucrative franchises like Doom and Fallout, as well as the upcoming Starfield. (Also, take your tickets to see it live on the Champs-Elysées).
While adding Arkane to Microsoft’s excellent portfolio wasn’t a priority, it might have been a negligible little bonus for Xbox, especially when Redfall was very good! In addition, this acquisition
The acquisition gave hope to some Arkane employees that Microsoft might shut down Redfall, or better yet, reboot it as a single-player game. Instead, Microsoft took a completely neutral approach. Not only did they announce a PS5 version of Redfall, but they also released the development team.
Shifts for little efficiency
Unfortunately, in all these adventures, between demotivating the teams and the time it took the studios to understand that there was a multiplayer game to develop, Bethesda wasted a lot of time and money. The acquisition didn’t really help, worse, Microsoft duped the game as if it was the return of the company’s big AAAs! In addition, Redfall is the first game from Microsoft to break the $80 mark in regular edition.
I was very disappointed with the results and the only option was to postpone the release date of the title or to cancel it… except that this last option was not possible for the American giant… Eventually the title became in pain released Just for fans and for the studios behind it… I know that part of Arkane is “doomed” to improve Redfall and add a 60fps mode to Xbox Series X in the more or less near future.
