[Redfall] 70% of Arkane Austin have left the company - Jason Schreier

John Elden Ring

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Schreier has released another investigative piece, this time regarding what happened with Redfall. Some of the more juicy bits:

Redfall started development in 2018. Arkane's Prey had been a flop, ZeniMax demanded microtransactions, and management wanted to make a game with broad appeal. It was pitched as a "multiplayer Arkane game" — but it was never clear what that would mean, or how it would work.
Arkane was always understaffed, but on Redfall, attrition also became a significant problem. By the end of Redfall's development, a whopping 70% of the Arkane Austin developers who worked on Prey were no longer there, according to people familiar as well as a Bloomberg analysis.
Veteran workers who weren’t interested in developing a multiplayer game left in droves.
Arkane was also perpetually understaffed, said people familiar with its production. The studio’s Austin office employed less than 100 people— sufficient for a relatively small, single-player game like Prey but not enough to compete with multiplayer behemoths like Fortnite and Destiny, which are developed by teams of hundreds.
Arkane Hoped Microsoft Would Cancel ‘Redfall instead only canceled PS5 version

 
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Nhomnhom

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If they can still be counted as a studio for purposes of list wars Xbox fans won't even notice.

Shift to GaaS claims another soul:
Lionhead - Fable Legends
Crytec - Hunt Showdown
Bioware - Anthem.
Crystal Dynamics - Avengers.
Rocksteady - Suicide Squad.
Arkane Austin - Redfall.

Let's hope Naugthy Dog survives their failed MP project.

Also, other than L4D has any of these coop focused games done well?
 
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Swift_Star

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Redfall started development in 2018. Arkane's Prey had been a flop, ZeniMax demanded microtransactions, and management wanted to make a game with broad appeal. It was pitched as a "multiplayer Arkane game" — but it was never clear what that would mean, or how it would work.
Arkane was always understaffed, but on Redfall, attrition also became a significant problem. By the end of Redfall's development, a whopping 70% of the Arkane Austin developers who worked on Prey were no longer there, according to people familiar as well as a Bloomberg analysis.
Veteran workers who weren’t interested in developing a multiplayer game left in droves.
Arkane was also perpetually understaffed, said people familiar with its production. The studio’s Austin office employed less than 100 people— sufficient for a relatively small, single-player game like Prey but not enough to compete with multiplayer behemoths like Fortnite and Destiny, which are developed by teams of hundreds.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-xbox-panned-after-7-5-billion-microsoft-deal

I wonder how is Bethesda doing, certainly not fine too. Studios and IPs go to Microsoft to die, that is certain.
 

bxrz

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Those people left before Microsoft bought them. Thats how Weird West happened and Wolfeye Studios was born. Zenimax had them making a game they didnt want to make so they left

Nice try tho 😂
 
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Johnic

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Those people left before Microsoft bought them. Thats how Weird West happened and Wolfeye Studios was born. Zenimax had them making a game they didnt want to make so they left

Nice try tho 😂
What the actual fuck? They just left, not before MS bought them. Is this some sort of a new astroturfing strategy where you all play idiots and pretend the opposite?

Tell me, what's the going rate for shilling these days? Don't tell me you do it for free because that'd be pathetic. Imagine doing marketing/damage control work for a multi trillion corporation for free. My man, that pays a lot at least ask for a month of GamePass or something.
 

Airbus

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Redfall not even out for more than a month

This is becoming a bad omen for microsoft
 

bxrz

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What the actual fuck? They just left, not before MS bought them. Is this some sort of a new astroturfing strategy where you all play idiots and pretend the opposite?

Tell me, what's the going rate for shilling these days? Don't tell me you do it for free because that'd be pathetic. Imagine doing marketing/damage control work for a multi trillion corporation for free. My man, that pays a lot at least ask for a month of GamePass or something.
They didn’t just leave. They left over the course of development because they were making a game they didn’t want to make

How about you don’t write me anymore paragraphs and you actually read the article?
 

Swift_Star

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Those people left before Microsoft bought them. Thats how Weird West happened and Wolfeye Studios was born. Zenimax had them making a game they didnt want to make so they left

Nice try tho 😂
So? It’s still Microsoft’s fault they haven’t canned the game and haven’t restaffed the studio. Nice damage control, though.
 

bxrz

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So? It’s still Microsoft’s fault they haven’t canned the game and haven’t restaffed the studio. Nice damage control, though.
Cancel the game so people can cry for years like they do for Scalebound and Fable Legends? Thats your solution?

How about not forcing a studio to make a game they don’t want to make in the first place?
 

Airbus

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Cancel the game so people can cry for years like they do for Scalebound and Fable Legends? Thats your solution?

How about not forcing a studio to make a game they don’t want to make?
God damn it youre anoying

Havent i told u to shut up already
 

Swift_Star

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2 Jul 2022
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Cancel the game so people can cry for years like they do for Scalebound and Fable Legends? Thats your solution?
Yes. Cancel a failed product, restaff the studio and start working on a new game.
How about not forcing a studio to make a game they don’t want to make in the first place?
Well, MS let them to their own devices and this happened. This is 100% on MS, no amount of damage control will change that.
Hands off approach my ass.