A brand new report has emerged which means that the long-awaited Redfall offline replace was probably simply weeks away from launching earlier than Microsoft shuttered Arkane Austin yesterday.
Arkane Austin was one in every of 4 builders shut down or subsumed into different entities by Microsoft yesterday, together with Hello-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, Mighty Doom studio Alpha Canine, and Redfall co-developer Roundhouse.
Now, a brand new report by IGN says {that a} main Could replace for Redfall, which might have allowed gamers to play the sport with out its controversial always-online requirement, was near launch earlier than Arkane Austin’s closure.
In response to IGN’s report, the Hero Go content material for Redfall, which might have launched two new characters, was set to launch in Halloween. Clearly, that will not be taking place now, since all improvement on Redfall will cease with Arkane Austin’s shutdown.
As identified by Eurogamer, the Hero Go was nonetheless AWOL a yr after Redfall‘s authentic launch, and now, it isn’t arduous to see why.
Within the e-mail from Xbox studio head Matt Booty asserting Arkane’s closure yesterday (which was additionally seen by IGN), Booty mentioned that Redfall‘s servers would stay on-line, but it surely’s not clear for the way lengthy.
If the servers for Redfall are shut down, the sport will turn out to be fully unplayable, and whereas Microsoft appears to be intending to maintain the servers alive for now, it is fully as much as the corporate when the plug is pulled.
Redfall launched on Could 2nd final yr. It was met with a largely destructive reception, with critics pointing to its lifeless open world, repetitive fight, and comparatively dumbed-down gameplay as low factors for Prey developer Arkane Austin.
The sport’s technical efficiency at launch was additionally criticized owing to its lack of a 60fps mode on Xbox Sequence X|S, not less than at launch. The backlash even prompted Xbox head Phil Spencer to apologize for the sport, a transfer that appears sadly prophetic in hindsight.
For the final yr or so, Redfall has struggled to interrupt the 200-player-per-day mark on Steam, and whereas gamers can have been enjoying the sport on Xbox as effectively (due to its day one Sport Go launch), it is protected to name Redfall a flop at this stage.
Arkane Lyon head Dinga Bakaba weighed in on the Austin shutdown yesterday, too, calling for compassion and understanding from gaming trade execs. That’ll be the day, eh?