Arkane staff hoped Microsoft would cancel or reboot Redfall — report

Xbox has come under fire for the poor reception Redfall received last month, and according to a new report, some developers had hoped the game would be canceled following Microsoft’s ZeniMax acquisition.Following the poorly received launch of Redfall, a new report suggests that some members of the team had hoped Microsoft would scrap the game following its $7.5 billion acquisition of parent company ZeniMax in 2020, or at least reboot it as a single-player experience. 70% of Prey developers reportedly left Arkane during Redfall developmentArkane’s switch from single-player-focused games to a multiplayer title with Redfall not only surprised fans but caused a raft of developers to leave the studio, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who spoke with numerous people that worked on the project. Due to the commercially unsuccessful release of Prey, ZeniMax reportedly wanted Arkane to make something more broadly appealing, as well as “strongly urging developers at its subsidiaries to implement microtransactions,” and skew games towards live service models. Redfall was apparently pitched to the team as a “multiplayer Arkane game,” but this reportedly left developers confused, wondering if a multiplayer game from the studio was even possible, considering it specialized in single-player immersive sims. It was also claimed that as the project progressed, leads Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare failed to provide a clear direction, with staff growing frustrated with management frequently changing ideas. This, along with Arkane also being understaffed, supposedly saw morale plummet, and developers that didn’t want to work on a multiplayer game “left in droves.” The report says that roughly 70% of the team that worked on Prey left Arkane during Redfall’s development cycle.Following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax in 2020, it gave The Elder Scrolls and Doom publisher a greater level of autonomy instead of rolling the studios under the Xbox Game Studios banner. Bloomberg reports that some staff at Arkane had hoped Microsoft would can Redfall or have them reboot it as a single-player game, but its hands-off approach meant that the multiplayer-focused game would continue, with only the PlayStation version being dropped. Redfall launched on May 2 for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass, garnering less-than-favorable reviews. It’s currently one of the worst-reviewed games of 2023 on Metacritic, earning a score of 54 out of 100. In our Redfall review, we said, “Its lack of a clear vision or sense of direction prevents it from being anything more than just decent at best,” but still felt like there is fun to had in the vampire shooter. Now it feels like the pressure is on Starfield to carry Xbox through the remainder of the year. Have you played Redfall? If you have, drop a comment below and let us know what you think about it!



Source link