Microsoft’s Newest Round of Layoffs Targets Bethesda, and Ceases Development of Redfall
I was one of the ‘lucky’ few who was there on day one for the release of Redfall. Coming back from work, I saw the Reddit posts and recommended videos on YouTube talking about just how bad the game was. But I said to myself that Redfall surely can’t be that bad. So, my friends and I loaded up our pre-installed copies from Game Pass and began to play.
What we encountered was just as bad as the rumors. Glitches making the game unplayable, terrible vampire AI, and a complete lack of interactability with the world. I could barely even connect to my friend’s lobby either, constantly plagued by disconnects and crashes.
But, I saw glimmers of hope that maybe one day, Redfall would have a comeback. The characters had fun and unique abilities, and the storyline was, admittedly, not that bad (minus the slideshow cutscenes). It had been done before with No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk, why couldn’t it happen for Redfall?
Well, I finally got my answer, and it’s a rather disappointing conclusion to the game’s existence. On May 7th 2024, Microsoft announced the closures of three Bethesda Studios, including the studio behind The Evil Within, Tango Gameworks, and Arkane Austin, the developers of Redfall.
Rather than transferring the responsibility of fixing and completing Redfall and its DLC to the other branches of Arkane, or one of the million studios that now fall beneath the Xbox umbrella, Xbox has decided to cease development on Redfall.
This means no future updates for Redfall, and the promised DLC that was bundled in with the “Bite Back” edition of the game will never see the light of day. Of course, players will receive partial refunds for the premium version of the game, but it’s a disappointing fate for a game that could have had a comeback with a bit of love and monetary backing from the most valuable company in the world.
Since the game’s disastrous launch, Redfall only released 3 updates, mostly centered around bug fixes and stabilizing performance. As far as I can tell, the only new content that was added the year after launch was the Basilisk Sniper. One weapon…
Admittedly, I’ve not jumped back in since launch, as the updates never felt monumental enough to justify taking up over 100 gigabytes on my hard drive.
However, the loyal members of the Redfall subreddit claim that the game is playable and moderately fun as of April 2024. The last beacon of hope for players was the news about the DLC and subsequent updates. Rumors surrounding new content were frequently discussed in the subreddit, and players imminently expected an announcement that would mark the game’s comeback. Here’s a comment from one of the moderators of the subreddit regarding potential updates:
Comment
byu/monst3rlovee from discussion
inredfall
Unfortunately, today’s news was the opposite of what many players had hoped for.
The team at Horror Game News expresses their sadness about the news of today’s layoffs, and we wish all individuals at affected studios the best in the future.
