Redfall's Development Was Reportedly So Troubled That Devs Hoped Microsoft Would Cancel It

Arkane Studios' development of Redfall was reportedly so troubled that its developers hoped Microsoft would cancel the game after acquiring the company in 2020.

Bloomberg released a report having spoken to several anonymous sources familiar with Redfall's development after it launched last month to poor reviews and significant technical issues. These sources claimed Redfall struggled with a misguided vision, staffing issues, and more.

Things allegedly became so bad at Arkane that, despite having put two years into Redfall at the time of the Xbox acquisition, staff wished it would be rebooted as a single player game or cancelled altogether.

The switch to a multiplayer focus, which was reportedly pushed for by parent company ZeniMax, appeared to be a major cause of Redfall's issues. Developers who worked on the single player Prey (which is a format Arkane is known for thanks to hits like Dishonored) were now working on a multiplayer game, and Bloomberg reported that 70% of these staff members left by the end of Redfall's development.

Replacing them was also claimed to be an issue for the same reasons: applicants looking to replace these roles were developers passionate about single player and not the multiplayer experts that Arkane needed. This led to what's claimed to be a "perpetually understaffed" team of less than 100 employees.

The project also reportedly lacked direction as a result, with developers stuck between making a single player and a multiplayer game. The sources claimed that management would also regularly switch reference points, saying Redfall should be like Far Cry one day and Borderlands the next, leaving designers with no clear idea of what game they were making. Microsoft declined to comment on the report when reached out to by IGN.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he was upset with himself and took full responsibility for the handling of Redfall. "There’s nothing that’s more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community, and just kind of watch the community lose confidence [and] be disappointed," he said at the time.

This loss of confidence is perhaps most concerning for Xbox when looking ahead to Starfield, the next colossal RPG from Skyrim and Fallout developer Bethesda that's due to launch in September.

Spencer tried to dismiss concerns, however, saying the publisher "did a better job" at supporting Bethesda than it did Arkane.

In our 4/10 review of the studio's latest, IGN said: "Redfall is a bafflingly bad time across the board. Plagued with bland missions, boneheaded enemies, and repeated technical problems, Redfall simply wasn’t ready for daylight in this state."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.