When Microsoft acquired Zenimax Media, it came with a slew of different development studios. Included was Arkane, and they were already working on a couple of projects. One of which was Redfall under Arkane Austin. The studio wanted to deliver a thrilling cooperative vampire shooter experience similar to how we saw the cooperative FPS zombie experience with Left 4 Dead. However, it’s a project that failed to meet players’ expectations when the title eventually launched.
Redfall was a game that looked to be a fun experience with friends, but unfortunately, there’s not much fun to be had here. The game was released in a terrible state and quickly gained horrible reviews. Microsoft did not want to see this, especially since it was one of the first big exclusives to land on the Xbox Series X/S platforms after purchasing the company. But if you thought this warranted the swift closure of Arkane Austin, you couldn’t be more wrong.
This very question was prompted by Axios when they had the chance to speak with Matt Booty. Now if you’re unfamiliar with this individual by their name, Matt Booty is the head of Xbox Game Studios. During the interview, Matt was asked about the future of Arkane Austin, in which he said the plan right now is for the studio to stay open. Currently, they are working on updates and content for Redfall. However, it’s a waiting game to see if the studio can turn this project around after its disastrous launch.
Of course, since Redfall launched and the poor reception flooded the web, we’ve seen reports that developers were hopeful that Microsoft would kill off Redfall when they were acquired. Plenty of staff reportedly left due to Redfall pivoting away from the single-player projects they were initially known for.
Meanwhile, Xbox head Phil Spencer also commented on the poor state of the game. Phil noted that the team from Xbox needed to attach themselves to projects already underway in development when a studio is acquired. Redfall was a project already in development, so it seems like the resources Microsoft could provide went to studios just getting projects off the ground.
So, for now, it looks like there are no plans to shut down the studio over one bad game, and it should be interesting to see if Arkane Austin pivots back to the immersive single-player gameplay experiences going forward. Meanwhile, if you haven’t played Redfall and want our take on the game, then you can check out our Before You Buy video coverage in the video embedded below.
