Redfall, the exciting vampire-hunter shooter out of the talented team at Arkane, is for all intents and purposes the beginning of the “new” Xbox first-party. The old Xbox first-party, ushered in during the Don Mattrick era, effectively set Microsoft back a generation. Although high-profile failures still exist like Halo Infinite’s much-maligned post-launch efforts, the acquisition of Zenimax and Bethesda was, if nothing else, a promise of a brighter future for those who align with the big, green machine.
With honoured marketing deals like Ghostwire: Tokyo and Deathloop in the rearview, Redfall feels like the first opportunity for Microsoft and Xbox to affirm its intentions to bare its fangs and become more of a contender in the console space while PlayStation and Nintendo have things on their terms.
It needs to hit because Xbox, as an entity, needs a win.
Despite having monster hits like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, it’s probably safe to say Bethesda and its studios have never experienced the level of scrutiny levelled at Xbox and its own. It’s a whole new ball game for Bethesda as the burden of soft-launching the new vision for Xbox, along with all of the strategies that go with that, is being shared and mostly shouldered by them.
Of course, there have been critical victories and stepping stones along this journey, like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment. However, when it comes to the roll-out strategy of a big game every quarter, when one looks to the future, Redfall feels like the first cab off the rank.
The unfortunate thing here is that Redfall, despite being a game I had fun previewing and am still excited for, has become something of a bad press headache for all involved. Whether it’s host-only progression that forces one to question whether it’s worth playing together, the drama surrounding the game’s need for a persistent connection, or the latest revelation that the game would launch without a performance mode on Xbox consoles—an unforgivable faux pas for the world’s most powerful console. Admirable as it appears, these repeated efforts at transparency are beginning to scupper any modicum of excitement that surrounds the game and, for the vocal and “hardcore” echo chamber online, is drumming up cries for delay.
Whether this is the right call or not is debatable, though it’s certainly going to be damning should Redfall not put its right foot forward.
It isn’t a live-service game, so it can’t win favour back long-term like Destiny has. First impressions are golden, and while it’s a game that previewed well, if players boot up in May and it isn’t the game we’ve been sold, it could conceivably miss its moment in time—another game with huge expectations reduced to a middling shambles from a stable of extremely talented and accomplished studios now under a banner that just can’t find the firing spark.
Of course, Redfall could strike a chord with the silent majority that don’t count frames or place stock in variable refresh rates. It might serve as the lightning rod Xbox wants for Game Pass, bring in another few million subscribers, and be checked off as a pass mark. Their strategy is so unorthodox and unlike that of PlayStation and Nintendo that the metrics for success aren’t black and white and focused solely on units moved. Whatever the benchmark is, there’s no denying that Redfall has had a bit of a mare on the public relations front and it’ll sow doubt, give mindshare to other mammoth games releasing either side of it, and derail Xbox’s first-party renaissance from its tracks—which would place incredible strain on Starfield, a game that’ll already be held to near-impossible expectations.
Is it a storm in a teacup? I wouldn’t go that far, as hitting 60fps should be the bare minimum for a next-gen release that’s meant to showcase the world’s most powerful console.
That said, as someone who has spent time in Redfall, Massachusetts, I know how fun this game will be. Without losing any of what makes an Arkane game special, Redfall is an exciting direction for the team and it’s a shame that this omission, paired with the hopes pinned to the game by the suits at Xbox, might be the straw that cripples the camel.
Simply put, Redfall can’t afford to fail. It’s time to curb people’s enthusiasm, there’s too much at stake.
