[IGN] Arkane Austin Was Working on a Big Redfall Update for May Before Microsoft Ditched the Game and Closed the Studio

[UnluckyKate]

So awful. What a fucked up situation.

Arkane: Hey, now that you bought us, maybe we don't have to work on this terrible game that we want to move on from anyway to make something we want to make.

Xbox: Naw, just finish it at this point.

Arkane: We feel it won't end up well. We've never made a game like this before.

Xbox: Whatever, just go ahead and finish. Cancel the PS5 version, we need exclusives.

Arkane: OK, now that we're done, can we work on something else?

Xbox: No. You have to fix it first.

Arkane: Sure, we estimate it will take a year of hard work, then we can move onto something else.

One year later...

Arkane: OK, this big update is literally weeks away from being done. It includes an offline mode so people can still play our game in the future. Then we can finally work on something new.

Xbox: Yeah, we're closing your studio. The update is cancelled.

Click to shrink...

If this isn't a perfect encapsulation of the management across MS Game Studios for the past decade, I don't know what is... If it wasn't all so cynical and frustrating, it would be hilarious.

 

[AstralSphere]

So awful. What a fucked up situation.

Arkane: Hey, now that you bought us, maybe we don't have to work on this terrible game that we want to move on from anyway to make something we want to make.

Xbox: Naw, just finish it at this point.

Arkane: We feel it won't end up well. We've never made a game like this before.

Xbox: Whatever, just go ahead and finish. Cancel the PS5 version, we need exclusives.

Arkane: OK, now that we're done, can we work on something else?

Xbox: No. You have to fix it first.

Arkane: Sure, we estimate it will take a year of hard work, then we can move onto something else.

One year later...

Arkane: OK, this big update is literally weeks away from being done. It includes an offline mode so people can still play our game in the future. Then we can finally work on something new.

Xbox: Yeah, we're closing your studio. The update is cancelled.

Click to shrink...

Comically bad management by both Zenimax and Xbox leadership

 

[The Third Heat]

Absolutely wild to me that MSFT is just gonna let the game hang in this weird limbo, when it was so close to being a salvageable product they could market and sell for years. But no. They're content to let it die; to live forever as a forgettable icon on the Game Pass library screen that most people will scroll past on their way to downloading Starfield.

Release the dumb update, you cowards.

 

[Protagonist]

Let Arkane finish and publish the planned update, you numpties.

 

[Filth_Flannigan]

Cross posting this:

From almost EXACTLY a year ago today:

*shuts studio*

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Phil doesn't want you to remember that stuff. It's not genuine, its PR. He really showed just how much he was willing to bet on them to make another great game by closing them down completely and putting everyone out of work. Good Job Phil, that quote was nothing more than trying to counter all the negativity surrounding you releasing that game in that state. You were defending yourself, not that studio.

 

[Barrel Cannon]

The no offline mode is a big Fuck You, especially after Xbox saying Preservation was an important thing for them.

Not very important when you can't even let the people making your game playable forever just finish their damn patch before letting them go and canceling all content.

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100%

 

[I KILL PXLS]

I had no about that. Wow. What a fucking horrible fumble to sell, in my opinion. That's such a devastating corporate pivot.

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I think it was pretty obvious Zenimax was flailing and needed to sell in order to operate as they were. BGS prints money but not enough to continue keeping the whole operation afloat and despite the awesome output of the rest of the studios they owned the games coming from them weren't exactly selling all that well. That's exactly why we got something like Redfall instead of Prey 2. At best in an alternate timeline the Arkanes and Tango would have been sold off to someone else while Zenimax/BGS stayed private.

 

[Doomguy Fieri]

Terrible news for the 8 people still playing.

 

[Kraken3dfx]

Offline mode was literally the thing I was waiting for to try this out. I guess I'll scratch that off the list.

 

[Betamaxbandit]

The team working on a game they didn't even want to make truly was trying to get it in the place they wanted and Xbox even denied them that.

The fact they cut the support before the Offline Update (Which would've at least made the game infinitely playable in the future and part of the Game Pass Catalog with no Server Needed) stings as well. Really speaks of the choices being to appease shareholders and no one else.

Everything about the Xbox news today has been ridiculous.

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there was ZERO chance of redeeming that game ZERO. Did you actually play it? I did, I suffered through as much as possible before throwing in the towel. You are correct though, you could tell it was a game that they didnt want to make. Thats not on xbox this time, thats bethesda. Throwing money and resource at this was never going to "fix" it, at some point you have to cut your losses and that point should have been before they even released it.

Really sucks for the devs that they got landed with this project and had to chase that golden GaaS egg