Xbox boss on Redfall studio Arkane Austin staying open: ‘That’s the plan at once’

Redfall’s launch again on Might 1 was a catastrophe. It was panned by audiences and critics (together with our personal Tyler Colp, who scored it 44% in his Redfall overview) and riddled with efficiency points. The game’s scenario is so dire that, when it bought its first main patch earlier this week, there have been underneath 100 folks nonetheless enjoying to see it, a surprising quantity for a significant launch from a giant studio.

As an inveterate fan of Arkane’s video games, it has been powerful to look at, and greater than as soon as I’ve puzzled if the way forward for Arkane Austin—the department of the studio that made Redfall—could be thrown into query by Redfall’s less-than-lacklustre efficiency. However in a current chat with Axios, Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty took a few of the blame for Redfall’s state at launch, and painted a—not precisely optimistic—however brighter image than you may count on of Arkane Austin’s future.

Responding to a query about fan considerations concerning Arkane Austin staying open, Booty stated “That’s the plan at once”. The studio is “onerous at work on updates and continued content material for Redfall,” and it seems like Microsoft does not need to upend that work with a sudden closure. 

Nonetheless, it is onerous to not learn one thing ominous into how Booty phrased that assertion. “That’s the plan at once” isn’t precisely a full-throated expression of timeless assist. Plans change, particularly when “at once” is not at once. It seems like Redfall’s devs haven’t got to fret concerning the rapid future, however I would not be stunned if its long-term survival was on skinny ice.

Nonetheless, possibly they will pull it out of the bag. Booty did not put the entire blame on Arkane Austin for Redfall’s state at launch, remarking that he feels “accountable that we may have accomplished a greater job with Arkane,” which means that Microsoft may have accomplished a greater job at setting expectations inside the studio for what a first-party game must be.

And most surprising of all, apparently individuals are nonetheless enjoying the game, at the least over on Game Move. We solely have Booty’s phrase to go on, however the Xbox boss stated it was getting “good play” on Microsoft’s game subscription service, noting that “It was a miss, however how a lot of a miss?” He added that he needs to assist Arkane Austin mould Redfall into the game they’d in thoughts from the beginning (which might be completely different from the model they hoped Microsoft would cancel earlier than they needed to launch it).

So, fingers crossed that Arkane Austin’s errors with Redfall do not turn into deadly. I definitely hope so; the studio behind Prey deserves higher than to go quietly into that good night time.