Redfall is one of the biggest disasters of the year and now we know the reasons why. Jason Schreier, a journalist for Bloomberg, did an investigation into the game's development and, in short, revealed that it was a disaster from the start.
The shooter was plagued with problems of all kinds, starting with the developers not wanting to make a multiplayer title. The report reveals that even the creatives had hopes that Xbox and Microsoft would cancel or restart the project after the ZeniMax and Bethesda buyout. This to turn it into a single-player, but nothing happened.
Redfall was destined to fail due to mismanagement
The creation of Redfall began in 2018, a year in which ZeniMax was already in negotiations for its sale. According to Schreier, the company asked all its studios to move closer to games as a service, as it wanted products that could be monetized beyond launch.
Thus, popular Bethesda franchises adopted the model and the Arkane Austin team came up with the idea for Redfall: a shooter with vampires that would include microtransactions for cosmetic content. However, not everyone at the studio was enthusiastic about the idea, as the company's hallmark was immersive sims.
The creatives who spoke with Schreier pointed to a mismanagement of the project, as there was no clear direction in its concept. On the other hand, they pointed out a constant lack of personnel for a project of this type and clarified that even the support of other ZeniMax studios was insufficient.
All this caused several problems. On the one hand, developers dissatisfied with the project and the multiplayer approach left the company. It is claimed that 70% of the staff who had worked on Prey left the studio because of the Redfall disaster.
At the same time, Arkane Austin had trouble finding new staff, as those interested in joining their ranks wanted to make single-player games.
Xbox and Microsoft did not intervene in the Redfall disaster
Some of the developers regained hope when they learned that Microsoft was going to be the new owner of ZeniMax and Bethesda. However, they were in for a disappointment. The creatives expected Xbox and Microsoft to cancel or restart the project when they saw its status.
Their biggest hope was that the title would be restarted and be a single-player; however, Xbox and Microsoft did not intervene in the project and let it continue. They gave ZeniMax autonomy and, incidentally, canceled the PlayStation 5 version of the game.
These factors made the development of Redfall a disaster and the rest is history. Currently, the title is one of the worst releases of the year and also one of Arkane's worst games.
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