Arkane Studios, the developer behind the highly anticipated game Redfall, has expressed some shock and fear at the prospect of the game being released on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service on the day of its launch. This marks the first time that an Arkane Studios game will have a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass, and it is likely that all future games from the studio will follow suit.
Redfall, which is being developed for PC and Xbox Series X, was originally slated for a 2022 release, but the date was pushed back to the first half of 2023. However, recent leaks have suggested that there has been another internal delay for the game, potentially pushing its release date back even further, potentially to May 2023. This has caused some concern about the potential impact on the release date of Bethesda’s open-world sci-fi RPG, Starfield, which was previously expected to launch after Redfall. However, it is still anticipated that Starfield will be released in the first half of 2023, so it is possible that the delay of Redfall will not affect the release of the other game.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Arkane Studios director Harvey Smith referred to the release of Redfall on Xbox Game Pass as “kind of shocking” and “scary in a way,” due to the sheer number of players that could potentially access the game at launch, resulting in a larger volume of feedback than the team had anticipated. Smith also described Redfall as Arkane’s “pandemic game,” as it was primarily developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is unclear at this time what, if any, impact this may have on the scope or quality of the game.
It is worth noting that while Arkane has already released one game since Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, the first-person shooter Deathloop, the release of Redfall on Xbox Game Pass on the same day as its official launch is a new and potentially daunting experience for the studio. In the case of Deathloop, Microsoft honored pre-existing agreements between Bethesda and Sony, resulting in the game being a PS5 exclusive for an entire year before being released on Xbox through the Game Pass service. However, no such agreements exist for Redfall, so it will be available on Xbox Game Pass on the day of its official release.
Fans will have to wait for an official release date to be announced in order to get a better idea of when they can expect to get their hands on Redfall. Hopefully, Microsoft will provide more information about the release dates for both Redfall and Starfield in the near future so that fans can stop guessing and start looking forward to getting their hands on these highly anticipated games.
