Redfall Could Be Getting Rid of Its Most Controversial Feature

gamerant.com:

Redfall developer Arkane Studios has confirmed that it's planning to change a feature that's drawn a relative amount of controversy. The upcoming first-person shooter has been looked at as quite the curiosity, even among Arkane's biggest fans. That's because Arkane is best known for its single-player releases, including the Dishonored series, Prey, and most recently Arkane Lyon's Deathloop. Arkane Austin is moving in a different direction, however, with what's previously been said to be the always-online Redfall.

Always online games are increasingly popular in the modern video game industry as publishers and game developers seek to monetize their playerbases. An offline player, after all, doesn't have immediate access to microtransactions. Early leaks of Redfall indicated it, too, would be heavily monetized with an in-game store and microtransactions. However, Arkane has since confirmed Redfall has no microtransactions or in-game store. It's possible that player feedback led Arkane to reverse course.

Redfall Teases the Dark Origins of the Town and Vampires

Now Arkane is ready to reverse course on another controversial decision. Arkane Austin game director for Redfall Harvey Smith says that the team is now working on an offline mode for Redfall. Speaking with Eurogamer, Smith explains that developers can react to requests for an offline mode in two ways. They can say players are always online anyway and ignore criticism, or they can show empathy to those who don't have reliable internet. Arkane it has decided to listen, but there's a catch.

Adding an offline mode to a game so heavily built around online co-op isn't easy, and is especially difficult for a game that was previously always-online. That's why Smith says that