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The release of Redfall quickly became a forgettable one for Arkane Austin and Bethesda and its lofty live service aspirations are reportedly what caused its disappointing reception. Even though its premise and core gameplay loop initially seemed promising, the lack of clear direction provided to the development team ended up throwing any potential that the game had out the window.
Arkane Austin’s development on Redfall began in 2018 and it was during this time that Zenimax had decided to encourage its studios to create more games that heavily implement microtransactions. Obviously, the inspiration behind this decision was due to the fact that popular titles like Fortnite and Overwatch were thriving at the time and continue to do so in the current market.
However, Arkane Austin isn’t exactly known for creating live service, multiplayer hits. Instead, they’ve gained a steady reputation throughout the years as brilliant makers of immersive sims that allow you to explore and tackle the worlds they’ve created in different ways. Sadly, Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare, the people tasked with co-directing Redfall, failed to unite the team and instead left them confused with what they were doing.
According to a report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, staff members eventually “grew frustrated with management’s frequently shifting references to other games, such as Far Cry and Borderlands, that left each department with varying ideas of what exactly they were making.” It also didn’t help that Smith and Bare failed to specify what their goals were with Redfall’s single- and multiplayer modes, which left the game perpetually suspended in-between as evidenced by the unfinished product provided.
Additionally, Arkane Austin’s relatively small in-house team, though suited to their typical immersive sims, was ill-equipped to handle the creation of a massive, live service game that the higher ups wanted. With all of these issues combined, the conclusion that we got was seemingly inevitable, though it is by no means the fault of the developers themselves.
Bethesda and Arkane have since promised to provide patches and updates that will fix the current state of the game in order to give players a smoother experience. Based on the reception from fans, however, it may be too late to redeem Redfall’s abysmal launch.