Arkane Austin had one of the most disastrous launches in recent memory when it released Redfall just last month. With the game’s poor performance and reception, there have been questions about the studio’s status as a first-party developer - and survival.
Redfall is one of the worst-reviewed games on Steam after it was released with bugs and technical issues. It was so bad that Xbox CEO Phil Spencer was reportedly upset with the game’s state at launch. Despite failing to meet expectations, it looks like Arkane Austin is safe, at least for now.
In an interview with Axios, Xbox Game Studios' Matt Booty gave an update about the troubled studio in the wake of what may be the most cursed release of the year. Booty has confirmed that Xbox keeping the studio open "is the plan right now."
"They are hard at work on updates and continued content for Redfall," Booty said. "I want to support them to be able to keep working to deliver the game they had in mind." As far as player opinions go, most don't have a lot of faith in this being another No Man's Sky redemption arc.
Arkane Austin became a part of the Xbox Game Studios umbrella when Microsoft acquired its parent company ZeniMax Media in 2021. Redfall was already in development when the acquisition was finalized, making it difficult for Microsoft to give guidance for its vision of the game.
The studio had a stellar track record before releasing Redfall. The studio is best known for its work on the Dishonored series, the Wolfenstein spin-offs, and Deathloop. Many fans were on board with Redfall leading up to launch based on this pedigree alone, which made the poor launch even more surprising.
Arkane also developed Prey, which became controversial because was envisioned as a spiritual successor to System Shock rather than the 2006 game released by Human Head Studios. Bethesda reportedly forced the studio to use the title as it owns the IP.
Booty also shared that he felt partly responsible for the failure of Redfall as he didn’t properly set the expectations for the title. "I feel accountable that we could have done a better job with Arkane," he said.
However, the Xbox Game Studios chief is still seeing positives with Redfall and thinks that the game isn’t doing as badly as many assume. He shared that the game is getting "good play" on Xbox Game Pass. "It was a miss, but how much of a miss?" he asks.
There were reports earlier this month that painted a chaotic development for Redfall. The developers even thought that the game would be canceled while others didn’t want to work on the title. Redfall reportedly lacked a clear direction with caused its downfall.
Will Redfall be one of those comeback stories like Battlefield 2042, Cyberpunk 2077, or even No Man’s Sky? We will know the answer in about a year. Redfall is available exclusively on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
