Opinion: Fumbled Redfall launch shows Microsoft has become its own worst enemy
Microsoft has a first-party problem that I'm not sure it knows how to address.
As you'll have heard by now, the company launched Redfall earlier this week and to say it hasn't reviewed well would be a generous read. Like the residents of the shooter's titular island, Redfall has been torn apart. In this metaphor, Xbox owners are the terrified locals huddled in their basements while their once-idyllic town is ravaged by otherworldly forces that only come out at night. As for Microsoft? Well, it's the machiavellian bloodsucker.
Alright, that might be a tad hyperbolic, but I figured you'd enjoy the imagery. The point stands, though. Redfall's underwhelming launch presents a huge issue for Microsoft. The company has been crying out for a bona fide first-party hit–one capable of rivalling Nintendo's revered The Legend of Zelda series and Sony's award-winning trauma simulator The Last of Us–and Redfall just ain't it.
Out of sheer morbid curiosity, I decided to take Redfall for a spin earlier this week, and what I found was a half-baked shooter that feels like it was rushed out to meet some internal quota. Is it the worst game I've ever spent time with? No. But it's a damaging release for both Microsoft and developer Arkane–remember, this is the studio behind Dishonored, Deathloop, and Prey–because it feels so damn pedestrian.
Redfall is admittedly something of a departure for Arkane in that it's a fully open-world co-op experience, but you'd have backed a studio with its pedigree to stick the landing. You'd have also backed Microsoft, a company desperate for a first-party slam dunk, to give Arkane the time it needed to ensure Redfall launched in pristine condition. Neither of those things happened, and the question remains:
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