A new report has emerged which suggests that the long-awaited Redfall offline update was potentially just weeks away from launching before Microsoft shuttered Arkane Austin yesterday.
Arkane Austin was one of four developers shut down or subsumed into other entities by Microsoft yesterday, along with Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, Mighty Doom studio Alpha Dog, and Redfall co-developer Roundhouse.
Now, a new report by IGN says that a major May update for Redfall, which would have allowed players to play the game without its controversial always-online requirement, was close to release before Arkane Austin's closure.
According to IGN's report, the Hero Pass content for Redfall, which would have introduced two new characters, was set to launch in Halloween. Obviously, that won't be happening now, since all development on Redfall will cease with Arkane Austin's shutdown.
As pointed out by Eurogamer, the Hero Pass was still AWOL a year after Redfall's original release, and now, it's not hard to see why.
In the email from Xbox studio head Matt Booty announcing Arkane's closure yesterday (which was also seen by IGN), Booty said that Redfall's servers would remain online, but it's not clear for how long.
If the servers for Redfall are shut down, the game will become completely unplayable, and while Microsoft seems to be intending to keep the servers alive for now, it's completely up to the company when the plug is pulled.
Redfall launched on May 2nd last year. It was met with a largely negative reception, with critics pointing to its lifeless open world, repetitive combat, and relatively dumbed-down gameplay as low points for Prey developer Arkane Austin.
The game's technical performance at launch was also criticized owing to its lack of a 60fps mode on Xbox Series X|S, at least at launch. The backlash even prompted Xbox head Phil Spencer to apologize for the game, a move that seems sadly prophetic in hindsight.
For the last year or so, Redfall has struggled to break the 200-player-per-day mark on Steam, and while players will have been playing the game on Xbox as well (thanks to its day one Game Pass release), it's safe to call 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 industry execs. That'll be the day, eh?
