Redfall was an odd game before it had even launched. While undoubtedly keeping the Arkane artstyle, the choice to make a live service right off the back of (mostly) single-player hits like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Deathloop and the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dishonoured series felt like a huge departure for the 🔯studio. But it was perhaps because this departure was so brave that many set their expectations high, only to have them crushed on launch d💎ay.
Now, Xbox is blaming itself for this mess - kinda. While still making it clear that Redfall fell below its expectations, head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty takes accountability for failing to set these expectations in the first place. He also admits that Redfall was a "miss", even if he says Game Pass stats haven't been as rough as the critical reception.
"I feel accountable that we could have done a better job with Arkane," says Matt Booty. Speaking with , it's reported that he blames Xbox for failing to "set expectations around what the game needed to be as a first-party release."
However, despite this disappointment from fans and internally at Microsoft, the studio hasn't given up on the live service just yet. "I want to support them to be able to keep working to deliver the game they had in mind," says Booty. "That is the plan right now. They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall.”
Booty also shoots down fears that Arkane is facing closure as a result of Redfall's performance, with the team instead allowed to continue ongoing development.
Yet despite Booty's insistence that Redfall's issues stemmed from Xbox failing to communicate expectations with Arkane, it is worth noting that, according to Phil Spencer, Xbox did conduct mock reviews prior to launch. These internal reviews apparently put the ♍game ten points higher than what it was scored by most outlets, indicating that the company was satisfied with the service it published - until the actual reviews came in.
And for all of Booty's talk of allowing Arkane to make "the game they had in mind," it seems that many of the developers didn't want to make Redfall at all. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:According to a recent report, Redfall - which began development before the Microsoft acquisition - was only made because ZeniMax wanted a live service. After the acquisition, Redfall devs reportedly wanted either Xbox or Bethesda to cancel the game, or reboot it into a single-player experience. But of course, this never happened, and the❀ team were apparently left with a game that many had little passion for, and had suffered with an identity crisis throughout development.