Jason Schreier has published an interesting report on the crafting of Redfall, written by contacting various sources within the firm. It turned out that many developers they just didn’t want to make the game, which was mandated by management. So many left in the process, with around 70% of the staff who had worked on Prey deciding to escape from the studio, probably sensing the disaster. The number of developers who abandoned Arkane during the development of Redfall was verified through testimonials and through the study of LinkedIN profiles.
Schreier says Arkane’s morale was very low. Many veteran developers were not interested in a multiplayer game and left, having failed to convince the management that they should make a new game instead single player that it was more in the strings of the studio.
Many have hoped that, at the time of the acquisition, Microsoft cancel Redfall or, at the very least, restart it as a single player game. However, the Redmond house has left Zenimax total autonomy, requiring only the cancellation of the PlayStation version of the game.
Phil Spencer himself, in an interview with Kinda Funny, said that Xbox hasn’t done a good job of interfacing with Arkane Austin.
According to analyst Van Dreunen, the disappointing results of Redfall showed Microsoft’s desperate attempt to create content capable of attracting audiences to try to beat Sony and Nintendo at their own game. The hope is that in the future it will not repeat the same mistakes made with the Arkane title.
The development of Redfall began in 2018, after the flop of Prey. Zenimax wanted a game with microtransactions and studio executives were looking for one that would appeal to a larger audience. It was billed as “a multiplayer Arkane game”, but the gestation was confusing right from the start.
Arkane was always understaffed and with Redfall internal friction multiplied. The final version no longer had microtransactions, but all other problems remained.
Microsoft and Bethesda have not commented on Schreier’s report.
