Xbox boss Phil Spencer has commented on Redfall, saying that he’s “disappointed” and letting down the Xbox community has been “difficult.”Redfall launched earlier this week, and as we all know by now, it didn’t exactly go down well with the majority of critics and most players, thanks to lacklustre gameplay and a litany of bugs. In our Redfall review, Luke called the first-person shooter a “far cry from Arkane’s finest.” Now, speaking with Kinda Funny Games, Xbox chief Phil Spencer has shared his disappointment surrounding the game and letting down fans. Phil Spencer says Xbox will continue to work on Redfall”There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community,” Spencer said. “I’ve been a part of it for a long time… and just to kind of watch the community lose confidence and be disappointed, I’m disappointed. I’m upset with myself.”I think back to the announcement of 60 frames per second, and then we weren’t shipping 60 frames per second. That was kind of our punch in the chin rightfully a couple of weeks ago, and then seeing the game come out, and the critical response was not what we wanted, and it’s disappointing, so what can we learn? How can we get better?” Spencer goes on to say that despite Redfall’s critical response, he still wants to give developers the space to create what they want. “There’s clearly quality and execution and things that we can do. But one thing I won’t do is push against creative aspirations of our teams. There are a lot of people who will say, ‘Hey, you’ve got teams, that know how to do one kind of game; just force them to go do the one kind of game that they have a proven track record for’ and I’m just not a believer in that. “Maybe that means all underdeliver for some of our fans out there, but when a team like Rare wants to do Sea of Thieves, when a team like Obsidian wants to do Grounded, when Tango wants to go do Hi-Fi Rush when everybody probably thought they were doing Evil Within 3, I want to give the teams the creative platform, to go and push their ability, push their aspirations, but I also need to have a great selection of games that are continued to come, that surprise, and delight our fans. And we underdelivered on that. And for that, I apologise; it’s not what I expect, not what I want.”When asked about potentially delaying Redfall to add more polish to the game, Spencer agreed that there are bugs and Redfall and the quality could be improved, but a delay wouldn’t have changed the game’s core creative vision. “I’m a huge supporter of Arkane Austin. Their track record is awesome. I love a lot of the great games that they built. This is one where the team didn’t hit their own internal goals when it launched,” Spencer said.”It’s maybe a little simplistic to just say, hey, if you would have delayed it three months, the core creative of the game would have delivered on something that was different than what it was.”One thing Spencer did admit was that Xbox could have stepped in and engaged earlier with Arkane on Redfall and that Xbox needs to change its development process when it comes to games that are part way through development that Microsoft has inherited via an acquisition. “There are games that are in development when we acquire a studio, and there are things that are either really early in development or not even conceived yet, and I think we need to improve on engaging in games that are midway through production when they become part of Xbox,” Spencer said. “I do think there’s a different expectation for a game, even a team, when you’ve been third-party and all of a sudden you become part of first-party. There’s a different expectation in terms of how you’re going to perform on our console. I think there’s a different competitive set when people look at what this game is and the other games that they’re going to say, ‘hey, I want this game to feel as competitive as this other game on another console platform.'”We didn’t do a good job early on in engaging with Arkane Austin to really help them understand what it meant to be part of Xbox and part of first-party and use some of our internal resources to help them and kind of move along that journey even faster. We had left them to go work on the game — they’re a very talented team, I love that team, and I will totally bet on them to do another great game, but when Matt Booty and Jamie Leader, who is running Zenimax, and I sit down, I think we can engage earlier with our different studios. And I do think there’s a difference when we come in when the creative is already set on a game – and that’s not washing our hands. Every game we ship from our teams is an Xbox game, so we take full responsibility for it.””We should have been there for Harvey [Smith] and the [Redfall] team earlier. I think that’s on us.”Later, Spencer added that Arkane would continue to work on the game and is committed to bringing 60fps to Redfall. “We’re gonna continue to work the game,” Spencer said. “We’ve shown a commitment to games like Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, to continue to go and build games, but I also know these games are $70, and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great.”What are your thoughts on Spencer’s comments and Redfall? Give us your opinions down in the comments.
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