An extensive new report has gone up at Bloomberg offering more details on the release of “Redfall” last month which saw that first major Xbox exclusive from Bethesda receive a disastrous reception.
The game scored aggregate scores of just 56 (Xbox Series X/S) and 54 (PC) on Metacritic with reviews criticising almost every aspect of the multiplayer loot shooter from graphics, to gameplay to technical issues.
The title was a genre new to its creator Arkane Studios, best known for its critically acclaimed single-player dramatic and stealth games like “Dishonored,” “Prey” and “Deathloop”.
Now, the report claims the game’s development was hampered by a lack of clear direction, a high staff turnover, and insignificant resources for what was being touted as a triple-A game.
Speaking with over a dozen anonymous sources who worked on the title since it began development in 2018 as a “multiplayer Arkane game,” some members reportedly found the pitch confusing and were unsure Arkane’s gameplay style would translate well to co-op.
Arkane Austin, the branch that developed “Prey” back in 2017 to much acclaim, developed “Redfall” and was also said to be continually understaffed with fewer than 100 people and insufficient outsourcing support offered by Bethesda.
Plenty of experienced developers reportedly weren’t interested in making a multiplayer game and left the studio – so many that apparently only one-quarter of the staff who had worked on “Prey” was still at Arkane by the time “Redfall” was finished.
Arkane also experienced difficulties filling vacancies as many prospective employees wanted to work on single-player titles. The push for a live service title reportedly came from Bethesda’s former parent company ZeniMax and “Redfall” was designed with a significant microtransaction plan in mind until it was scrapped in 2021.
At that time, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, and some Arkane staff reportedly hoped the Xbox maker might cancel “Redfall” or reboot it as a single-player game.
As Xbox boss Phil Spencer acknowledged in a recent interview, Microsoft took a hands-off approach to Bethesda’s game development studios. After the poor launch reception, Developer Arkane will continue to work on the game.
Source: BNN Bloomberg (via VGC)
