Crunchtime for Redfall as Low Player Count Hits the Headlines [UPDATE]

Update: Following the publication of this story, Arkane released a new patch for Redfall, which introduces many new changes, including the long-awaited Performance Mode that allows Xbox Series X/S owners to play the game at 60 frames per second.

The original story continues below.

With a dwindling player count, a promised 60fps patch still not out, and months of silence from its developer, Redfall may be on its last legs.

Arkane’s Redfall suffered a disastrous release in May, one that went so badly Xbox boss Phil Spencer personally apologised for it. IGN’s review returned a 4/10. “Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board,” we said. “Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state.”

Microsoft was also heavily criticised for showing its PC and Xbox exclusive running at 60fps ahead of launch and, less than a month before the game came out, announcing the co-op vampire shooter would arrive locked at 30fps on Xbox Series X and S, with a 60fps performance mode to be patched in later.

Now, nearly half a year after it came out and over three months since its last update, Redfall still awaits this 60fps performance mode, and player numbers have plummeted to the point where there are only a handful of people on Steam playing at any given moment. At the time of this article’s publication, just six people were playing Redfall on Steam, according to SteamDB.

Redfall doesn’t make the top 50 most-played games on Xbox, either. According to Microsoft’s own chart, more people are playing Bethesda’s own Skyrim, Mortal Kombat 11 (that’s the one from 2019), and 2017’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 than Redfall. That’s an awful position to be in for a co-op focused game that released day-and-date on Game Pass.

Bethesda publishing boss Pete Hines said last month the company is not done with Redfall yet, insisting Arkane will “keep working on it”, like how Bethesda “stuck with” The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76 after rocky launches.

“We are the same company that has had launches that didn’t go the way we wanted, and we don’t quit or abandon stuff just because it didn’t start right,” Hines said. “The Elder Scrolls Online’s PC launch was not flawless but we stuck with it. Now it’s like this insanely popular multiplatform. It’s the same with Fallout 76. Redfall is no different for us.”

In the same interview, Hines said Redfall’s 60fps patch is still in the works, and the game will be around for a long time because Game Pass lives “forever”.

“Okay, we didn’t get the start we wanted, but it’s still a fun game,” he said, “and we’re going to keep working on it. We’re going to do 60fps. We’re going to get it to be a good game because we know, as a first-party studio, Game Pass lives forever. There will be people 10 years from now who are going to join Game Pass, and Redfall will be there.”

That suggests Bethesda does not intend to pull the plug on the always-online Redfall, but for those still active within the game’s community, the game is approaching a make-or-break moment. Given Redfall’s vampiric theme, Halloween feels like an appropriate time to release a significant update and perhaps the last chance to inject new blood into the game.

“I’ve never seen a studio be this silent,” redditor rootless2 said. “You would think it would have gone on sale over the summer.”

“It might be time to make this game work offline and not let it disappear like other always-online games sadly,” MysterD77 added.

“Since there’s no matchmaking in-game, I never could fill a team,” z01z said. “No way to safely find players to play with,” feelin_fine_ complained. “Make it free to play,” Aggressive-Volume-16 said.

In the meantime, there are serious questions being asked about the ongoing sale of Redfall DLC. The Upgrade to the Bite Back Edition DLC, which costs £29.99 on the Microsoft Store, grants the Redfall Hero Pass, which in turn provides access to “two future heroes with unique powers and gameplay”. Bethesda is yet to provide a roadmap for their release.

IGN has asked Bethesda for comment.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].