Yesterday, we reported on a rumor that Microsoft allowed Bethesda to release Redfall because they had no faith in the project. Today, we have more details, this time corroborated by Jez Corden of Windows Central.
In an editorial for Windows Central titled “Xbox wasn’t involved with Redfall, but it’s still blamed for its quality”, Corden shared some facts about the behind the scenes of Redfall’s release.
As we had already reported, Microsoft put their hands up when it comes to the game’s production. But Jez doesn’t confirm here that Microsoft had ‘no faith’ in the game. Their hands off approach seemed to be based on the company’s current culture, which is to leave their game companies alone to make games as they see fit.
Jez shares an entirely new detail, and one that isn’t likely to come up from leaks. Matt Booty, director of Xbox Game Studios, did not have Redfall under his jurisdiction. Why? Microsoft does not consider Arkane and Xbox Game Studio by their own internal definitions.
As Jez explains further, Microsoft has chosen to keep Bethesda and its parent company Zenimax completely independent. Their logic here is that they want these acquired studios to hold onto their company culture.
To elaborate further, Matt Booty’s purview involve games that are considered to be handled by Microsoft’s internal studios. These include Microsoft Flight Simulator, Age of Empires, and Forza. Subsequently, Xbox head Phil Spencer is running the business side of the console gaming division. In general, Phil is too high up the chain of command, with other important responsibilities, to be personally overseeing Microsoft’s autonomous studios.
Mojang, the studio that runs Minecraft and makes Minecraft games, is also an autonomous studio. While it wasn’t pitched to be as big a release as Redfall, Minecraft Legends also recently disappointed with a 71 Metacritic rating. Between these two, there seems to be a bigger case for these studios to be made less autonomous.
However, lest we forget, Hi-Fi Rush was also a Bethesda project, which Microsoft has declared to be an unqualified success for them. Microsoft likely also didn’t expect Tango Gameworks to pitch such a game after making exclusively horror games.
As covered by AnchormanV2, Microsoft’s track record since 2020 has actually been more positive than negative. Their recent games and metascores are:
- Deathloop- 88
- Psychonauts 2- 87
- Ghostwire Tokyo- 75
- Grounded- 82
- Pentiment 86
- Hifi Rush- 87
- Minecraft Legends- 71
- Redfall- 63
Of course, Redfall also happens to be a major release bigger than most of the other games on the list. Maybe Microsoft can justify allowing their studios to take risks that can succeed or fail to let them grow, but as Jez concludes, whenever they have a dud, it reflects poorly on the whole company.
