Despite Arkane Austin’s most recent effort, Redfall, failing to excite critics and gamers alike, Xbox has no plans to immediately shut down the studio.
Some worried that the publication of the critically panned Redfall would be enough to collapse the company. In a recent interview with Axios, Microsoft Studios manager Matt Booty confirmed that Arkane Austin will continue working on new content for Redfall.
Directly responding to Arkane Austin fans who, according to Axios, “[hope] the studio will remain open regardless of the video game’s preliminary reception,” Booty said, “That is the strategy today.” Updates and new content for Redfall are being worked on diligently.
There you have it; Arkane Austin will be staying put for the foreseeable future. Although Booty admitted that he was “liable” for Redfall’s poor reaction, he noted that the game is still seeing “excellent play” on Xbox Game Pass. “It was a missed opportunity, but just how big of an opportunity did we miss?” he said. I hope my contribution will encourage them to keep making progress towards their goal of making the game they requested.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer had similar sentiments around the time of Redfall’s release, saying that he was “dissatisfied” by the reaction despite dedicated himself to improving the experience. Some developers reportedly hoped their jobs would be eliminated entirely after Microsoft acquired publisher ZeniMax, as this would mean no one would have to work on the game anymore. Yikes.
