- Arkane Austin Was Working on a Big Redfall Update for May Before Microsoft Ditched the Game and Closed the Studio IGN
- Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda IGN
- Microsoft’s Xbox shuts multiple studios, consolidates teams in cost-cutting move The Indian Express
- Microsoft’s Xbox Division Is Shutting Down Four Bethesda Studios Bloomberg
- After posting daily updates for 7 years, Prey fan account that was counting the days until a sequel reacts to studio closure: “It’s over” Gamesradar
Tag Archives: Redfall
Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity ‘Powerful Evidence’ Against Xbox’s Activision Buyout, Claims FTC – Push Square
- Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity ‘Powerful Evidence’ Against Xbox’s Activision Buyout, Claims FTC Push Square
- Lawyers: Internal email proves Microsoft’s Activision bid is designed to eliminate PlayStation Axios
- FTC: Xbox Making Starfield and Redfall Exclusive ‘Powerful Evidence’ Against Activision-Blizzard Merger IGN
- Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and many Xbox executives are set to defend its FTC case The Verge
- Keeping Bethesda games Microsoft exclusives “powerful evidence” against Activision Blizzard takeover, says FTC Eurogamer.net
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Some Arkane Staff Reportedly Hoped Microsoft Might Cancel Redfall Or Reboot It As Single Player Game – Game Informer
- Some Arkane Staff Reportedly Hoped Microsoft Might Cancel Redfall Or Reboot It As Single Player Game Game Informer
- Arcane’s Redfall Misfire for Xbox Panned After $7.5 Billion Microsoft Deal Bloomberg
- Report: Most of Arkane Austin’s Prey veterans quit during Redfall’s development, and the ones that stayed hoped Microsoft would cancel it PC Gamer
- Redfall’s Development Was Reportedly So Troubled That Devs Hoped Microsoft Would Cancel It IGN
- New Report Details Why Xbox Exclusive Redfall Had a Disastrous Launch Thurrott.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Redfall Lost 70% of Its Arkane Austin Staff During Development, Struggled the Whole Way – The Escapist
- Redfall Lost 70% of Its Arkane Austin Staff During Development, Struggled the Whole Way The Escapist
- Arkane Studios Hoped Microsoft Would Cancel Redfall – IGN Daily Fix IGN
- Xbox’s newest exclusive was such a mess even the developers hoped Microsoft would cancel it gamingbible.com
- ‘Suicide Squad’ Should Be Terrified Of What Happened With ‘Redfall’ Forbes
- Report: Most of Arkane Austin’s Prey veterans quit during Redfall’s development, and the ones that stayed hoped Microsoft would cancel it PC Gamer
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Phil Spencer Defends Future Of Halo Amid Cuts And Criticism
Things haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to remain upbeat and do damage control on each of these points and more in a new interview with IGN.
“Every year is critical,” he said. “I don’t find this year to be more or less critical. I feel good about our momentum. Obviously, we’re going through some adjustments right now that are painful, but I think necessary, but it’s really to set us up and the teams for long-term success.”
This week captured both the peril and promise facing Xbox right now. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a drop in net-income of 12 percent for the most recent fiscal quarter compared to the prior year. Xbox gaming hardware and software were down by similar percentages, and Microsoft said nothing about how many new subscribers its Game Pass service had gained since it crossed the 25 million mark exactly a year ago.
Then on Wednesday Microsoft provided a sleek and streamlined look at its upcoming games in a Developer Direct livestream copied right from the Nintendo playbook. Forza Motorsport was seemingly quietly delayed to the second half of the year, but looked like a beautiful and impressive racing sim showpiece. Arkane’s co-op sandbox vampire shooter Redfall got a May 2 release date. Real-time strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends will hit in April. And to cap things off Tango Gameworks, maker of The Evil Within, shadow-dropped Hi-Fi Rush on Game Pass, a colorful rhythm-action game from left field that’s already become the first undisputed gaming hit of 2023.
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“2022 was too light on games,” Spencer confessed in his IGN interview. 2023 shouldn’t be thanks to Redfall and Starfield, Bethesda’s much-anticipated answer to the question, “What if Skyrim but space?” But both of those games were technically supposed to come out last year. Meanwhile, Hi-Fi Rush, like Obsidian’s Pentiment before it, is shaping up to be a critically acclaimed Game Pass release that still might be too small to move the needle on Xbox’s larger fortunes.
Spencer remained vague when asked how successful these games were or their impact on Game Pass, whose growth has reportedly stalled on console. “I think that the creative diversity expands for us when we have different ways for people to kind of pay for the games that they’re playing, and the subscription definitely helps there,” he said.
Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Starfield, and a new The Elder Scrolls Online expansion due out in June are also all from Bethesda, which Microsoft finished acquiring in 2021. The older Microsoft first-party game studios have either remained relatively quiet in recent years while working on their next big projects, or, in the case of 343 Industries, were recently hit with a surprising number of layoffs.
Following news of the cuts last week, rumors and speculation began to swirl that 343 Industries—which shipped a well-received Halo Infinite single-player campaign in 2021, but struggled with seasonal updates for the multiplayer component in the months since—was being benched. The studio put out a brief statement over the weekend saying Halo was here to stay and that it would continue developing it.
Spencer doubled down on that in his interview with IGN, but provided little insight into the reasoning behind the layoffs or what its plans were for the franchise moving forward. “What we’re doing now is we want to make sure that leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to go build,” he said. “And Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo.”
Where Halo Infinite’s previously touted “10-year” plan fits into that, however, remains unclear. “They’ve got some other things, some rumored, some announced, that they’ll be working on,” Spencer said. And on the future of the series as a whole he simply said, “I expect that we’ll be continuing to support and grow Halo for as long as the Xbox is a platform for people to play.” It’s hard to imagine Nintendo talking about Mario with a similar-sounding lack of conviction.
It’s possible Microsoft’s continued struggles with some of its internal projects is partly why it’s so focused on looking outside the company for help. Currently that means trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and fighting off an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal trade Commission in the process. Microsoft had originally promised the deal to get Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush would be wrapped up before the end of summer 2023. That deadline’s coming up quickly, even as the company continues offering compromises, like reportedly giving Sony the option to continue paying to have Activision’s games on its rival Game Pass subscription service, PS Plus.
Spencer told IGN he remains bullish on closing the deal, despite claiming to have known nothing about the logistics of doing so when he started a year ago. “Given a year ago, for me, I didn’t know anything about the process of doing an acquisition like this,” he said. “The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having.”
Report: Xbox exclusive Redfall is targeting an early May 2023 launch date
What you need to know
- Rumors are swirling that upcoming Xbox exclusive Redfall is launching in May, 2023.
- Our sources corroborate those reports, suggesting the first week of May next year.
- If things go to plan, the game may also have an early access period of some sort.
Redfall is an upcoming Xbox exclusive from Arkane Studios, creators of Deathloop, Prey, and Dishonored. Microsoft acquired the studio with its big ZeniMax Media acquisition a couple of years back, and Redfall represents the first full Xbox console exclusive from the acquisition.
Redfall will join Starfield as part of Microsoft’s big Xbox and PC gaming console line-up in 2023, with Microsoft previously confirming that Redfall is gunning for the first half of 2023. According to reports and our own sourcing (which I corroborated on my XB2+1 Xbox podcast this past Tuesday), Redfall is targeting an early May 2023 release window — the first week of May to be exact.
The rumors began with Okami13, who claimed that Redfall would be targeting an early May release. Our own sourcing corroborated those reports this past week, with Microsoft’s internal targets focusing on early May for the game’s launch, complete with some form of early access period similar in vein to Forza Horizon 5. Forza Horizon 5 sported a “premium edition” which granted a few days of early access to the game, and if things go to plan, Redfall will be getting the same treatment.
Redfall is an open-world action game where up to four friends in drop-in co-op can help liberate an eponymous island town of a nasty vampire infection. Various creative weapons, combat abilities, and optional stealth gameplay await prospective vampire hunters. The developer emphasizes that the solo “immersive sim” gameplay the studio is known for is still an option for those who seek a more traditional Arkane experience.
If things go to plan, Arkane should see an early May release in 2023 on both Xbox Series X|S consoles and PC platforms. The game will hit the Microsoft Store and Steam, and also drop day one into Xbox Game Pass for good measure.
Redfall will hopefully contribute to what should be a great year for Microsoft and new Xbox games, after the relative drought of first-party content we saw through 2022.
Starfield And Other First-Party Xbox Games To Be $70 In 2023
Starting next year, Microsoft will raise the price of its first-party games from $60 to $70, joining other publishers and video game companies who are doing the same. Welcome to the era of the $70 game, folks.
For a few years now publishers and developers have hinted at game prices increasing as development costs rise and expensive-to-maintain online games become more and more popular. And while some $70 games popped up with the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2020, it wasn’t until this fall that we saw more of the industry move toward this new, higher price with the release of $70 games like Gotham Knights, Modern Warfare II and God of War Ragnarök on PS5. And next year, Microsoft—which has held back on raising prices this holiday season—joins other publishers and developers in this new, pricier era of video games.
As reported by IGN earlier today, Xbox has confirmed that its future first-party games developed for its next-gen Xbox consoles will cost $70 starting next year. This includes titles like Bethesda’s highly-anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield as well as Arkane’s vampire shooter Redfall and the next Forza Motorsport.
“This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch.”
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft about the price increase.
This increase isn’t too surprising as the entire industry seems to be shifting to $70 games and subscriptions. Even Xbox boss Phil Spencer hinted toward the increase in October, suggesting that the company couldn’t and wouldn’t hold its prices forever, adding that the cost of games, Game Pass, or Xbox consoles would likely increase after the 2022 holiday season. And now, as the year winds down, here we are, and here come the $70 Xbox games.
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Some may be quick to point out that this price increase won’t matter to many as Xbox Game Pass will continue to provide access to all future Xbox first-party releases across console and PC. In 2020, Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg wondered if the price of a game even matters with Game Pass. But for folks who prefer to buy just one or two games a year or who like owning their games and don’t want a monthly subscription, things are about to get a bit more expensive.
It’s also interesting to wonder what price point Starfield or Redfall would have launched at had they made their originally planned 2022 release dates instead of being delayed into 2023. Would Microsoft have made the $70 shift this year, or would it have let Starfield and/or the vampire shooter release as its last first-party $60 games before making this change?
Where To Watch (And What To Expect)
For Xbox, a lot is riding on its big not-E3 press conference. Right now, following a number of notable delays, the mega-publisher’s 2022 is devoid of any major exclusives. In addition to the requisite announcements of games coming to Game Pass and announcements about more devices on which you can stream those games, Xbox might actually share some news about, y’know, actual video games.
Where to watch
The event starts at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 12. You can stream it on Xbox’s YouTube and Twitch channels. If you’d prefer to view it with compressions so heavy it looks like you’re watching through a kaleidoscope, it’ll also stream on Twitter. Bethesda will also co-stream on its YouTube and Twitch channels. Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg said it’ll run for 95 minutes.
Xbox will follow the showcase up with an “extended” one at 1:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, June 14. That stream won’t feature any new announcements but will offer further details about games shown off during the main event.
What to expect
Ahead of Thursday’s Summer Game Fest kickoff event, publishers and developers—in an act of marketing for even more marketing—openly said whether their games would pop up during the show; few surprises there. Plenty of reveals during Sony’s big State of Play showcase, meanwhile, had been rumored beforehand; few surprises there either. Xbox’s event, however, is a bit more of an enigma.
It’s a pretty safe bet that something, anything, involving Halo Infinite will pop up. Halo is Xbox’s Mario. And right now, the latest iteration is the multiplayer shooter that also happens to be Microsoft’s big live service game du jour, with a regular slew of updates and a ton of previously announced additions planned for future updates. Halo Infinite still lacks multiplayer features—including support for a cooperative campaign, plus the creative level-building Forge mode—that have been in previous games and were promised for release some time this year. Last year, Microsoft trademarked “The Endless,” an obvious reference to events that happen at the end of Infinite’s campaign, teeing up a possible expansion. The studio Certain Affinity is also working on the game in some untold capacity; some fans believe it’s developing a battle royale mode.
Fans are also convinced some sort of Banjo-Kazooie revival is on the way. Via achievements, some people spotted Xbox head Phil Spencer playing the Xbox 360 version of Banjo-Kazooie earlier this month. (Some say it’s a sign; others say he’s just playing a game he enjoys.) Yes, this is the result of like three degrees of hearsay, but one developer claimed that something related to the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fighters is en route. Spencer previously told Kotaku that any revival of the series is a call to be made by original developer Rare, now an Xbox studio.
Speaking of Rare, the venerable studio has another game in the works that’s only been shown off in screenshots and brief cinematic trailers: Everwild. Last June, after Everwild was absent from Xbox’s E3 presence, VGC first reported that the game had been rebooted internally and was now targeting a 2024 release. Maybe this year’s not-E3 show is when we finally learn its deal?
Xbox’s slate has a bunch of other announced titles in the works. Many were teased during last year’s Xbox E3 showcase yet haven’t had any info revealed in the interim. A selection:
- The Outer Worlds, Obsidian’s first-person sci-fi RPG that feels like Fallout in space, is getting a sequel.
- Obsidian is also developing a first-party fantasy RPG called Avowed.
- The horror game Scorn, inspired by the works of H.R. Giger, has been delayed a few times. It’s currently slated for a broad October 2022 release on Xbox and PC.
- The makers of Just Cause are developing Contraband, a co-op game set in the ‘70s.
- Atomic Heart is another game like the modern Fallouts, set in an alternate-timeline version of the Soviet Union where the robotics industry has proliferated. It looks bonkers.
- Somerville is a Limbo-like where you run away from extraterrestrials while accompanied by a dog.
- Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, GSC Game World delayed its apocalyptic shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl from April 28 to December 8, 2022.
Two long-dormant Xbox series are also getting resurrected. The Initiative, a new studio, is working on a reboot of Perfect Dark. Playground Games, which just released the magnificent Forza Horizon 5 in November, has another entry in the Fable series of fantasy RPGs on the horizon. It’s anyone’s guess as to whether or not either of these games will show. (For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t be surprised if Playground shared some details about a Forza Horizon 5 expansion. Its predecessor, 2018’s Forza Horizon 4, saw the Fortune Island DLC just a few months after the main game’s release.)
But the big one—the sole Microsoft first-party studio that’s sharing title billing with Xbox—is Bethesda. Last month, Bethesda delayed its two biggest forthcoming games: vampire shooter Redfall, developed by Prey studio Arkane, and open-worlds sandwich-hunting RPG Starfield. (Kotaku recently reported that Bethesda is no stranger to crunch and overwork, with the development of Fallout 76 particularly being an arduous process.) Initially planned for a November 11, 2022, release, Starfield is now scheduled to come out in the first half of 2023. It’s been in the works for years, though, and to date, Bethesda has only shown off…eight whole seconds of gameplay footage.
Actually, you know what? Let’s face it. We’re not seeing Starfield gameplay. Bethesda will probably just announce another Skyrim port instead.
Xbox Game Pass Subscribers Say They’re Unsubscribing, For Now
Typically, when Game Pass starts trending, it’s either because it scored a killer game or some influencers concocted a viral “joke” that ultimately does nothing other than hand a $2 trillion corporation two days of free marketing. Over the past few days, however, Microsoft’s games-on-demand program started trending for another reason: Players say they’re unsubscribing. For now.
The burnout largely comes down to subscribers saying that Game Pass isn’t delivering on its value proposition. For a monthly fee, Game Pass grants you access to a Netflix-style library of games that you can download to your Xbox or PC (or, in some cases, stream to a compatible device). But the big selling point is this: Every first-party Microsoft game hits the library at launch, meaning subscribers get access at no extra cost to Microsoft’s prestigious first-party releases, like Halo Infinite or Forza Horizon 5.
Earlier this month, Bethesda—officially now one of Xbox’s first-party studios, following an industry-shaking acquisition in 2021—delayed its two biggest forthcoming games: space-RPG Starfield and vampire shooter Redfall (developed by Bethesda subsidiary Arkane). Both were expected to launch day-one on Game Pass this year. Now, they won’t come out until the first half of 2023, leaving Microsoft’s first-party portfolio looking much drier than it did a month ago.
All right, time for some reductive math! Let’s say that you’ve signed up for the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate tier, which costs $15 a month and includes standard access to the game library plus a number of other perks. Let’s also assume any big-budget games, exclusive or not, that hit the service cost an industry-standard $60. By that math, you’d need to play two full-price games via Game Pass every four months to justify the cost.
“The service is great but there aren’t any AAA exclusives to compel me to stay,” Tom’s Guide writer Tony Polanco said in a tweet. “I’ll be back when the titles start dropping.” Washington Post reporter Gene Park shared a similar sentiment, pointing out that, over the past few months, the only game from the service he’s availed himself of is Trek to Yomi, a side-scrolling samurai action game. (Trek to Yomi costs $20. Also side note: It rules.) Other prominent members of the gaming cognoscenti lamented paying up front for months if not years of Game Pass, while others compared it unfavorably against the upcoming revamp of PS Plus, Sony’s competing subscription service. (Sony’s generally vaunted first-party games won’t launch on PS Plus.)
On the flip side, there’s no shortage of people calling this whole thing a “clout war” or saying that “no one cares.”
It’s unclear whether the extended convo has had a tangible impact on Game Pass subscription numbers. Microsoft does not make such figures public, and representatives for the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A dip in interest was, to a certain extent, inevitable. For the past few years, Xbox has coasted on a tidal wave of goodwill generated by Game Pass, which has continually made some of the biggest AAA games—not just exclusives but also multiplatform hits like Guardians of the Galaxy—available on its service. Those come alongside a regular flow of smaller titles that benefit from the marketing boost of appearing on Game Pass. Part of the joy of subscribing is that you never know what you’re gonna get; you might try out an under-the-radar indie and bounce off it in minutes, or it could quickly become one of your favorites of the year. (Everyone, say hi to Tunic.)
Read More: The 24 Best Games On Xbox Game Pass
This mix of big and small, old and new, caused Game Pass subscriptions to ramp up significantly in 2020. They ticked up last year too (albeit at a slower rate than 2020), amid an absolutely banger series of lineups in the fall and winter. There’s no way Microsoft could’ve maintained that cadence forever; nearly six months into 2022, though it’s added the occasional gem, Game Pass has yet to feature an “OMG take my money!!!” lineup of forthcoming games.
That said, the service will almost assuredly improve again. Next month, Xbox will host its not-E3 press conference. During its 2021 conference, Xbox announced more than 20 games planned for Game Pass. Some of those have already come out. But plenty—from the Limbo-like Somerville to the Fallout-like Atomic Heart to the Outer Worlds-like Outer Worlds 2—have yet to receive release dates.
Phil Spencer Responds To Starfield and Redfall Delay: “We Hear the Feedback”
News that Redfall and Starfield are being delayed into 2023 made waves this morning, not the least because they were expected to be major tentpole releases for Xbox this holiday season. Since then Xbox CEO Phil Spencer has taken to Twitter to respond, acknowledging fan disappointment while also saying that “delivering quality and consistently is expected” and that Xbox “hears the feedback.”
Spencer’s tweet reads, “These decisions are hard on teams making the games and our fans. While I fully support giving teams time to release these great games when they are ready, we hear the feedback. Delivering quality and consistency is expected, we will continue to work to better meet those expectations.”
These decisions are hard on teams making the games & our fans. While I fully support giving teams time to release these great games when they are ready, we hear the feedback. Delivering quality & consistency is expected, we will continue to work to better meet those expectations. https://t.co/mIfXGd3rui
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) May 12, 2022
Starfield was originally slated for November 2022, where it was expected to be one of the biggest Xbox games of the year. Both it and Redfall join other high-profile exclusives like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 in being pushed into next year.
The initial delay announcement also says we’ll get to see the “first deep dive into the gameplay for both Redfall and Starfield soon,” potentially pointing to the Xbox/Bethesda Summer Showcase on June 12.
When they are finally shown, it will be the first major look that fans get of either game. So far there’s been no gameplay released for either, though Bethesda has afforded a number of glimpses at Starfield — from the game’s robot companion to the various facitons in the game.
So far, no official dates have been given for Starfield or Redfall, but the current projected time frame for both is the first half of 2023.
Casey is a freelance writer for IGN. You can usually find him talking about JRPGs on Twitter at @caseydavidmt.