Arkane Austin Was Working on a Big Redfall Update for May Before Microsoft Ditched the Game and Closed the Studio

IGN was told that the now canceled Hero Pass content, which was set to add two new characters to the vampire co-op shooter, was scheduled for release this Halloween. If it had come out, the Hero Pass would have marked a year-and-a-half of post-launch support for a game that had suffered a disastrous launch and an ever-shrinking playerbase.

Reached by IGN, representatives for Xbox and Bethesda declined to comment.

In an email sent to staff today, May 7, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, blamed the cuts on a “reprioritization of titles and resources.” The email, verified by IGN, includes confirmation that Redfall’s servers will remain online.

However, there is now fresh concern that the always-online Redfall could become unplayable if and when Microsoft shuts its servers off. In March last year, ahead of Redfall’s release, Arkane Austin said it was working on a fix that would reverse Redfall’s always-online requirement, an aspect that was met with backlash when first announced.

In an interview with Eurogamer, game director Harvey Smith said: “We listen. And we have already started work to address this in the future. We have to do some things like encrypt your save games and do a bunch of UI work to support it. And so we are looking into — I’m not supposed to promise anything — but we’re looking into and working actively toward fixing that in the future.”

However, the offline mode failed to materialize. IGN understands Redfall’s May update would have added the ability to play offline, which in turn would have helped with keeping the game alive in the future. Unfortunately for players, it will never see the light of day.

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— Arkane Studios (@ArkaneStudios) May 7, 2024

Redfall is one of the highest-profile disasters in Xbox history. The game was widely panned by critics and players at launch and reportedly had a deeply troubled development. Redfall’s launch struggles ultimately resulted in executives like Phil Spencer and Matt Booty issuing statements about Xbox’s own role in its weak release. Last year, then-Bethesda Softworks publishing head Pete Hines reassured players that Arkane wouldn’t give up on Redfall, insisting he was confident it would be a good game people wanted to play on Game Pass 10 years from now.

But it took over a month for Arkane to release its first big patch for Redfall despite the launch being criticized for having bland missions, un-engaging combat, poor AI enemies, struggling performance, myriad bugs, the always-online requirement, and more.

It then took five months for the Xbox Series X version to get 60 frames per second support, and Arkane upset fans again the following month when its third patch was headlined by a new sniper rifle instead of highly requested features like the offline mode. And this was the last fans heard.

In our 4/10 review, IGN said: “Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board. Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state.”

Microsoft’s cuts, which it has yet to comment on publicly, appear to have taken many Bethesda staff by surprise. Booty’s email to staff is littered with errors, including the names of studios and DLC, and today’s Xbox blog post about the new Fire Vapor Special Edition Controller initially included the tagline: “Feel the Burn Today.” Microsoft later removed it. Some have also criticized Microsoft’s announcement of the closure of Japanese studio Tango Gameworks late in the evening in Japan.

In a series of tweets, Arkane Lyon chief Dinga Bakaba hit out at the cuts, calling them “absolutely terrible.” “To any executive reading this, friendly reminder that video games are an entertainment/cultural industry, and your business as a corporation is to take care of your artists/entertainers and help them create value for you,” Bakaba continued.

Redfall game director Harvey Smith also commented: “I just want to say that I love all the people at Arkane Austin so much. Great times, hard times, we went through so much, together. Of course, today’s news is terrible, for all of us. Your talent will lift you up, and I will do anything I can to help.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.