Redfall - open world vampire slaying co-op FPS from Arkane Austin

[Harthwain]

I dunno man. I think its more of a smug self satisfied smirk with a double dose of in your face confidence.

Could be. I really can't tell due to her ginormous lips. Still looks kind of angry to me (because of the brows).

 

[Levenmouth]

Open World Everything was a mistake.

 

[v1c70r14]

I have no fucking idea what that expression is supposed to be.

What were they even going for?

You must have been busy in your dev bunker to not have heard of it by now.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Open World Everything was a mistake.

I blame ubisoft.

 

[Levenmouth]

Open World Everything was a mistake.

I blame ubisoft.

I almost want to blame MMOs, but open world in MMOs actually adds value, whereas it just filters me before I complete the game in SP stuff.

 

[Morgoth]

Redfall developer Arkane currently safe, Microsoft says​

"It was a miss, but how much of a miss?"




News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief

Published on 16 Jun 2023


Xbox has no immediate plans to shutter Redfall developer Arkane, after the studio's latest launch failed to find much of a positive critical or commercial reception.

Speaking to Axios, Xbox Game Studios chief Matt Booty said Arkane would remain open. "That is the plan right now," he said.

"They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall," Booty continued, saying he wanted to "support them to be able to keep working to deliver the game they had in mind".

Earlier this week, at a post-Xbox Game Showcase media event in Los Angeles attended by Eurogamer, Booty notably skipped over Redfall when suggesting Microsoft had "turned the corner" on first-party game releases.

"We had some gaps last year, but I think we've turned the corner coming into 2023," Booty said on Sunday. " feel very good about launching Hi-Fi Rush, we have Minecraft Legends out there which is doing well, we have Age of Empires continuing to come to console... and then as we saw today, this fall we have Forza Motorsport and Starfield."

As I noted in my own appraisal of Xbox's crowd-pleasing not-E3 turn, Microsoft appeared to be drawing a line under the matter by highlighting games such as InXile's Clockwork Revolution which were dreamt up after Xbox took ownership of the studio. Redfall, on the other hand, had been a project begun beforehand, without Microsoft's focus from the start.

Back in May, Xbox boss Phil Spencer also touched on this topic, while personally apologising for how Redfall landed.

"When we acquire studios, there's games that are in development when we acquire a studio, and then there are things that are either really early in development or not even conceived yet. We need to improve on engaging in games that are midway through production when they become part of Xbox," Spencer said.

"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 move along that journey even faster. So, we left them to go work on the game."

So, how is Redfall doing now?

"It was a miss, but how much of a miss?" Booty concluded, adding it gets "good play" on Xbox Game Pass.

 

[Kem0sabe]

There are no updates that can make this a good game. What are they trying to achieve by continuing to work on it? Nothing will get players to return to the game.

The big question is what does Arkane have lined up next? Arkane Lyon doesn't even have anything to announce, not even a title screen or CGI trailer. I think they are fucked this generation of consoles.

 

[Morgoth]

They're prolly gonna work on a Redfall: Re-Bite edition to be released in a years time with a big BIG BIG apology from Harvey.

 

[Average Manatee]

"It was a miss, but how much of a miss?" Booty concluded, adding it gets "good play" on Xbox Game Pass.

I wonder what happens to the people at Microsoft who were involved in QA and gave the greenlight for this release. Surely they are as much if not more responsible for releasing a useless piece of shit?

 

[toughasnails]

There are no updates that can make this a good game. What are they trying to achieve by continuing to work on it? Nothing will get players to return to the game.

Might be the matter of looks and prestige. This was a major Xbox exclusive (or it was at least taken as one) from a developer that was, prior to it, a critical darling. Much like Square Enix wouldn't let FF XIV fail as it would be a really bad look for them to have a numbered FF entry and a new FF MMO be a failure, so they invested loads into redoing the game, maybe at MS they are looking at Redfall as something that oughtn't be allowed to be remembered as a failure if they can help it. I can't see them going the same lengths as SE but I can see them investing in some enhanced edition that should salvage the game's reputation. Just think on it, if it was a major update/overhaul freely available to the existing owners, it would certainly get them some positivity.

 

[Zombra]

I wonder what happens to the people at Microsoft who were involved in QA and gave the greenlight for this release. Surely they are as much if not more responsible for releasing a useless piece of shit?

QA can't legitimately be held responsible for awful project management and impossible deadlines. Sure, they could be scapegoated if that's what's needed, but you don't realistically fire someone for being unable to put a bowling ball in their mouth "and do it by 3:00".

 

[Average Manatee]

I wonder what happens to the people at Microsoft who were involved in QA and gave the greenlight for this release. Surely they are as much if not more responsible for releasing a useless piece of shit?

QA can't legitimately be held responsible for awful project management and impossible deadlines. Sure, they could be scapegoated if that's what's needed, but you don't realistically fire someone for being unable to put a bowling ball in their mouth "and do it by 3:00".

They said that QA was playing the game and saying it was awesome, ready for release, would get great reviews, etc etc.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2023/...uring-development-says-xbox-game-studios-boss

Their job would have been to either recommend the project be scrapped or get 6-12 months more dev time. All signs point to them not doing that.

 

[Zombra]

They said that QA was playing the game and saying it was awesome, ready for release, would get great reviews, etc etc.

Unless you're reading something I'm not, you're filling in a lot of blanks around "we just had indicators that it was going to perform better than it did".

 

[Average Manatee]

They said that QA was playing the game and saying it was awesome, ready for release, would get great reviews, etc etc.

Unless you're reading something I'm not, you're filling in a lot of blanks around "we just had indicators that it was going to perform better than it did".

They said they had "mock reviews", which should be telling them what real reviews were gonna say. And keep in mind that this was supposed to be a big game for Microsoft. They were probably expecting 90s. In the end the publisher's QA always has the ability to send a game back to the oven to be baked more, or to torpedo it.

 

[-M-]

Harvey Smith looking more and more like the Kathleen Kennedy of games.

Attached to some great things, but turns out they bring nothing special to the table on their own. Kennedy had Spielberg and her husband; Smith had Spector, Terri Brosius, and Colantonio.

Always love it when people like this get exposed. Not that we didn't see this in Harvey after Invisible War.

 

[Morgoth]

Harvey Smith looking more and more like the Kathleen Kennedy of games.

Attached to some great things, but turns out they bring nothing special to the table on their own. Kennedy had Spielberg and her husband; Smith had Spector, Terri Brosius, and Colantonio.

Always love it when people like this get exposed. Not that we didn't see this in Harvey after Invisible War.

Again: Redfall was Zenimax' idea.

 

[Tyranicon]

"It was a miss, but how much of a miss?" Booty concluded, adding it gets "good play" on Xbox Game Pass.

You mean the people who essentially get the game for free, download it and play for 20 mins, and delete it forever?

Is that the definition of "good play?"

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

The best they can hope for now is for Arkane Austin to be turned into a support branch for the Lyon operations. There's no way Redfall can recover, it has "sunk cost fallacy" all over it.

 

[agris]

The funniest quotes:

Filling vacancies became a challenge. Within the industry, ZeniMax had a reputation for paying lower than average salaries, and convincing some progressive or moderate video game developers to move to Texas could be difficult due to the state’s conservative social policies.

This reads like the author is based outside of the US and their only knowledge of TX is from watching CNN or MSNBC.

Austin - you know, where the Arkane Austin part is from - is one of the most progressive cities in the United States. they even have homeless ruining it like the other big liberal coastal cities.

source: I lived there and love(d) the city

 

[Butter]

Harvey Smith looking more and more like the Kathleen Kennedy of games.

Attached to some great things, but turns out they bring nothing special to the table on their own. Kennedy had Spielberg and her husband; Smith had Spector, Terri Brosius, and Colantonio.

Always love it when people like this get exposed. Not that we didn't see this in Harvey after Invisible War.

Again: Redfall was Zenimax' idea.

That doesn't mean it had to be shit.

 

[Roguey]

Xbox has no immediate plans to shutter Redfall developer Arkane, after the studio's latest launch failed to find much of a positive critical or commercial reception.

That's not the question to ask. It's "Are you going to do anything about the mangement?"

 

[Hobknobling]

Xbox has no immediate plans to shutter Redfall developer Arkane, after the studio's latest launch failed to find much of a positive critical or commercial reception.

That's not the question to ask. It's "Are you going to do anything about the mangement?"

I do not know if people here follow any sports, but the most surefire sign of an imminent sacking of a football manager is that the club comes out and says that the manager has their full trust and support.

It's also the good old EA playbook to force a developer to fail and then to buy the developer for nothing and send the employees to a DLC gulag and reboot the acquired franchises as mobile games or something.

 

[Child of Malkav]

 

[Average Manatee]

I don't think Redfall deserves an hour of dissection. What is with this trend of making videos that are way too long for what they cover?

 

[Child of Malkav]

IDK I just like the guy.