Redfall’s development sure sounds like a hot mess, according to a new report

A recent report shed some light on what led to red drop launch in the state it did, and it certainly didn’t sound like it was smooth sailing.

Arkane Studios has long been known as a studio that creates games that have devoted fans, but are generally not commercially successful. Unfortunately though, Redfall launched in a rocky state, things were so bad that Xbox boss Phil Spencer had to comment on the matter. Now a recent report from Bloomberg has offered up some behind-the-scenes details as to why Redfall ended the way it did, and it sounds like there were issues from the very beginning of development.

According to Bloomberg, the development of Redfall began in 2018, when ZeniMax (owner of Bethesda and, later, Arkane Studios) was looking to be acquired by another company. Around the same time, he was also apparently encouraging the studios he owned to develop live service titles, a trend that had recently started thanks to the popularity of titles like Fortnite and Overwatch.

While this wasn’t required, after Arkane Austin’s 2017 release of Prey was a particularly commercial flop, the team was looking to make something more generally appealing, which led to the creation of the concept of Redfall (a multiplayer game). where players face off against vampires).

The biggest issue the staff ran into right away is that Arkane has historically been a single player developer, while Redfall was presented as a “multiplayer Arkane game”, which some staff members found confusing. There was also no clear sense of direction, as various departments had different ideas about what type of game they should work on.

On top of this, Arkane was also severely understaffed, with the Austin studio only employing less than 100 people, which is hardly enough for a multiplayer title. Hiring new staff was then an issue, as the game had yet to be revealed, and most requesters would have done so under the impression that they would be working on more classic Arkane-style titles. More frustratingly, ZeniMax also had a reputation for paying lower-than-average wages.

Due to the general low level of morale, many staff members began to leave, with Bloomberg reporting that around 70% of the Arkane Austin staff who had worked on Prey were no longer with the company by the end of Redfall’s development. Things were apparently so bad that when Microsoft finally acquired ZeniMax, staff hoped the former could cancel Redfall entirely, or at least allow them to reboot it as a single player game, but Microsoft apparently took a hands-off approach (apart from to say that Redfall could no longer launch on PS5).

Ultimately, Redfall was released as a multiplayer game, although there are supposed to be improvements to the game. So with the upcoming Xbox showcase, it seems pretty clear that the company needs a win.