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According to a french retailer, Microsoft never believe in Redfall and Arkane Lyon is working on a ambitious game

Cashon

Banned
I don't believe this for a second, this game was their "one more thing" a couple years ago, it's been consistently positioned as a key part of MS' lineup, it was marketed heavily, it was a big part of their directs in 2022 and 2023, and Satya Nadella explicitly mentioned in this game in his conference call a week ago. I find it hard to believe that they invested all this space in a game they did not believe in, I mean this is more than Sony gave Days Gone lmao.
The one more thing was very weird though. It screamed of a last-minute adjustment. If I recall correctly, it was just a CG trailer, with no gameplay. For a new IP. That's not typically how the "one more thing" trailers go; it's almost always an already existing IP isn't it?

I'm not saying the claim here is true, but that Redfall debut seemed very weird to me at the time. I suspect they were initially going to show a game that simply wasn't ready to be shown, and they had nothing else for the end, so they went with Redfall for some reason.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
Do Arkane Austin and Arkane Lyon share team members? Because I have some trouble seeing why Arkane Lyon's next big game would make Microsoft rush Arkane Lyon on RedFall and send it out to die.

Unless that cash budget is shrinking for all the teams as a whole and Xbox management couldn't throw yet more money at RedFall if it meant less money for Arkane Lyon's next game. Could see the connection in that case.

And why would MS have this particular problem? Isn't this MS' strong suit?
 

quest

Not Banned from OT
The one more thing was very weird though. It screamed of a last-minute adjustment. If I recall correctly, it was just a CG trailer, with no gameplay. For a new IP. That's not typically how the "one more thing" trailers go; it's almost always an already existing IP isn't it?

I'm not saying the claim here is true, but that Redfall debut seemed very weird to me at the time. I suspect they were initially going to show a game that simply wasn't ready to be shown, and they had nothing else for the end, so they went with Redfall for some reason.

It has been in Development since 2017. Microsoft had the shit choice to allow the studio to try and right the ship or scrap 4 years of work. They choose to see if they could fix it. They gave them extra time nothing can save the game so they released it and letting the bulk of the studio move on to a project better suited for them. This was old management trying to get a gaas since the company was not making enough money. This fall out 76 and deathloop all trying to make bank in gaas category.
 

SHA

Member
There's a difference though.

Microsoft makes reasonably good AA games: Pentiment, Ori, Grounded, etc. But they don't have the talent, systems, and tech in place to create high-quality AAA games.

Think about it. When was the last time Microsoft created a high-quality character-driven AAA game? More importantly, when was the last time Microsoft created a high-quality AAA game that was NOT a sequel with an already set and successful formula?
It's definitely not a budget problem.
 

SHA

Member
There's a difference though.

Microsoft makes reasonably good AA games: Pentiment, Ori, Grounded, etc. But they don't have the talent, systems, and tech in place to create high-quality AAA games.

Think about it. When was the last time Microsoft created a high-quality character-driven AAA game? More importantly, when was the last time Microsoft created a high-quality AAA game that was NOT a sequel with an already set and successful formula?
Maybe cause he's a nice guy, and being nice doesn't work in the business industry.
 

SHA

Member
That's not how Gamepass works, and MS could've kept it low profile or indefinitely delayed it. Cancelling it also an option. All would have better outcomes than what just happened.

The game came out because look around, don't know if you have noticed but MS is having a bit of a problem fulfilling their end of the bargain.
I have an old way to judge releases, don't trust any publisher when there's no competition cause they do it for the money, when you have little to no choice they literally got us cause there's nothing to compare with which is more deadlier to that recently released game, it's the result of not taking any risks, cause gradually it just worsen the outcome.
 
It has been in Development since 2017. Microsoft had the shit choice to allow the studio to try and right the ship or scrap 4 years of work. They choose to see if they could fix it. They gave them extra time nothing can save the game so they released it and letting the bulk of the studio move on to a project better suited for them. This was old management trying to get a gaas since the company was not making enough money. This fall out 76 and deathloop all trying to make bank in gaas category.

That's not a good excuse for why they would let the game release in such a terrible state. Games a technical mess and is poorly designed. Even if MS had no control over the games design, they had control over the performance and release date.

They could've avoided much of the backlash. They've pissed off lots of die hard Xbox fans and they've caused people to question both their platform and the Series X as a console.
 
The one more thing was very weird though. It screamed of a last-minute adjustment. If I recall correctly, it was just a CG trailer, with no gameplay. For a new IP. That's not typically how the "one more thing" trailers go; it's almost always an already existing IP isn't it?

I'm not saying the claim here is true, but that Redfall debut seemed very weird to me at the time. I suspect they were initially going to show a game that simply wasn't ready to be shown, and they had nothing else for the end, so they went with Redfall for some reason.

That's moot tho because they would continue to put Redfall forward on several occasions as one of the premiere 3-4 Xbox exclusives
 

Killer8

Member
Microsoft is selling a game to their customers that should have been delayed but didn't because they "never believed in it"?

go fuck yourself middle finger GIF by IFC

They already did delay it by a whole year in May 2022.

Microsoft did absolutely nothing wrong. They tried to salvage a game that was in development hell since 2017. Hell, they only bought the studio in 2021: already 3-4 years into development. And the studio still couldn't pull it off.

The blame rests entirely with Arkane.
 

Topher

Gold Member
They already did delay it by a whole year in May 2022.

Microsoft did absolutely nothing wrong. They tried to salvage a game that was in development hell since 2017. Hell, they only bought the studio in 2021: already 3-4 years into development. And the studio still couldn't pull it off.

The blame rests entirely with Arkane.

Arkane is a part of Microsoft. And they should have delayed until 2024. The game at its core isn’t bad. It just needs more time in the oven to work out all the little things (and there are a lot) that need to be done. It could have been really good. But Microsoft, as a whole, has a quality control problem and they need to fix it.
 
Who gives a fnck who believed or didn't believe in the game? Does that matter, after the fact? The game was funded, made and advertised. It's in MS/Zenimax's best interest to put out a game that meets the expectations of gamers/reviewers, and meets the quality they want to strive for as a gaming company. If they're funding it, and advertising it and don't believe in it, then what the fnck are they doing with their money? It's a complete waste, and investing in something you don't believe in is bad business - even Microsoft knows that.

Even if they didn't "believe in it" at one point, I'm pretty sure the people responsible can sit down and come to a consensus about what needs to be done, for them to "believe in it." What's wrong with the game? What can be improved? How do we improve it? Is that not a thing anymore? Companies just fling their arms up in the air and go "Oh well, this doesn't seem to be coming out right. Might as well just leave it as is and hope fans don't notice or complain." Is that what this "inside retailer" is insinuating?

I call bullshit. It's very plain and simple...it's easy - Microsoft/Zenimax/Arcane (or whoever) dropped the ball on Redfall with poor decisions, either in budget, staffing (numbers), resources, human resources (the right people for the job), timeline, the gameplay design or a combination of all of those things. Get ya shit together Microsoft/Phil. You're looking reeeeal bad in these streets!
 
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