Redfall Was Originally in Development for PS5 Before Microsoft Acquisition - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 22 March 2023 / 4,634 Views
Redfall Game Director Harvey Smith in an interview with IGN France revealed the game was at one point in development for the PlayStation 5, but once the studio was acquired by Microsoft the focus moved to Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.
"We were acquired by Microsoft and it was a change with capital C," said Smith via Google Translate. "They came in and they said 'No PlayStation 5, we’re focusing on Xbox, PC and the Game Pass.'"
He does believe this move was not serious and was a good decision as it means one less platform to have to support.
"It's not very serious, it's even a good decision I think," he said. "[It helps to] support Game Pass and have one less platform to worry about, one less complexity."
The game launching day one on Xbox Game Pass does mean it has the potential to be Arkane's biggest game to date.
"Game Pass has a ton of players, it could become our biggest game thanks to 30 million, where I can't remember the exact number, of subscribers."
It should be noted the game was never officially announced for the PlayStation 5. Microsoft did state when it acquired ZeniMax it would support any contractual obligations and games that already exist on other platforms. Microsoft Gaming CEO did say the acquisition is about "delivering great exclusives."
Redfall will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Xbox Game Pass on May 2.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I would be been shocked if it wasn't. Any game that started development before the acquisition likely had a ps5 version at least planned.
Of course it was.
Not surprising as they bought Zenimax to help solve their exclusivity issue and the game had not been announced yet.
Now tell us something we didn't know.
Oh no what a surprise. In other news, MS own 100% of Arkane.
They will own 100% of ABK soon as well
This is pretty obvious, same with Starfield. "It's not very serious, it's even a good decision I think," he said. "[It helps to] support Game Pass and have one less platform to worry about, one less complexity." Wonder what his thoughts are on the Xbox Series S.
Series S and Series X run the same code base. So it's simply about optimizing for two destinations.
Heck, if you choose to use Microsoft's development tools, you can run the same code on PC, Series S and Series X. And the PC code already has to be scalable, so scaling between Series S and X isn't that big a deal.
To the degree it's complex it's just about making sure the Series S version is really good, which can sometimes take a lot of optimizing to the LoD. Not always though, as CPU-heavy games typically run really well on the Series S without a lot of optimization required.
But then real world comes out and we see a lot of issues based on this (like a certain title that people were complaining about Sony paying for exclusivity but was purely they having issue to port on Xbox, mainly due to S).
The developer has not said the S is the issue there, that's speculation. A good theory, but merely speculation all the same. There are other theories, as well.
I do agree. But that is just pointing that porting isn't something as simple as some may pretend (the poor release of TLOU1 is a good example, a PS3 remake ported from PS5 to PC with 6 months of extra work still turned out poorly).
suppose it depended how far in development it was alot of the games was near completion for other platforms with some other Microsoft purchases so makes sense to just released them but its been few years now
Microsoft has been way too soft. They should have done the same with Psychonauts 2, Wasteland 3 and The Outer Worlds.
Deal should not go through! MS-just invest that 69 billion back into your existing 23 studios and you’ll do very well!!!👍
But Phil, I thought games were for everyone? I thought you wanted to put games on as many screens as possible? Whats that? You meant only within the Xbox ecosystem and you really aren't consumer friendly at all? Ahhh ok
Subscribe to game pass and you’ll get to play Redfall on your Samsung TV, smartphone, or PC via web browser that you’re currently making this ridiculous comment on without having to buy a piece of plastic. One of which you clearly hold so near and dear to your heart in an unhealthy way :)
No problem! Know you always got more than one option to play Xbox games going forward. Including the device you're using now.
Fun fact, you can play GeForce Now games through the Edge browser on the Xbox! :D Microsoft could block it if they wished to, but they don't choose to. Ditto about blocking emulators on the Xbox, they don't choose to block them either (so long as they don't contain copyrighted material, such as BIOSes or ROMs).
So I think Microsoft is putting their money where their mouth is, for the most part, when it comes to letting people play almost anything, almost anywhere.
However, if it were me, I would release Redfall and Starfield on PS... but I'd make PS users wait 18-24 months for them, the same as Sony makes PC users wait for Sony games.
Still people playing PS games on Xbox without owing the game through emulation is ignored.....
Why are you narrowing it down to PS vs Xbox? Emulation is a PC functionality where any consoles source code has been pulled allowing it to be emulated. Piracy is nothing new. Switch games get more pirated than anything other modern console.
Because MS can't stop piracy and emulation in PC like they can on Xbox.
Agreed with your point about piracy. However, Microsoft has pretty much opened up Xbox to running homebrew emulators FWIW.
Yep, I don't hold MS at fault since they don't promote or endorse, but I believe they could be more strict with people that run games on the homebrew (but yes MS can't see if the person is doing legally or not).
PS1 and PS2 games are the only ones available on emulation on Xbox that I'm aware of, and they're both available only through homebrew (nothing official).
I thought PS3 also were run using homebrew, well I don't think Sony would complain about PS1 and PS2 emulators and the ludicrous low number of possible piracy through it, it is almost advertisment for their latest console and sequel entries.
The PS3 is hard to emulate, but you might be right (I don't follow it very closely, to be honest).
Yes that's a shame, I myself got manipulated into saving more than 700$ in 3 years by using GamePass. I Feel so dirty. Please set us free tell us how much being bound squarely to a proprietary plastic box is the intended pure way.
His comment doesn’t make him a fanboy like you’re seemingly implying. It’s more of an observation of how disingenuous Phil Spencer seems to be. He talks out of both sides of his mouth. He has said many things implying Xbox’s goal is for as many people as possible to play their games, and that the more people who can play, the more we all win; yet, it’s all obnoxious PR, and that’s proven the more we see cases like Starfield and Redfall.
You should've seen his follow up comment. Regardless though, Phil does spit out a lot of PR speak, but he's also not wrong. In regards to Zenimax, they were very clear about what games would and wouldn't be exclusive. So the thought that Redfall and Starfield had PS5 versions being worked on shouldn't surprise anybody.
In regards to as many people to play their games as possible, there's more smartphones, PC's, and TV's out in the world than there are PlayStation consoles, and all of those devices have the ability to play Xbox games without ever having to buy an actual Xbox. Which is great! There's more options to play Xbox games than any other platform combined. I mean, the device you used just now to comment whether on a laptop or smartphone can play Xbox games. So as much PR speak Phil is throwing out, he's not wrong. You can play Xbox right now, and they've given gamers little reason to not at least give it a try.
I’m aware of all of that, but that’s not what Im talking about. He’s made it sound multiple times like MSFT and he are the good guys who want games on every possible platform and don’t want to take anything away from anyone. But they have and do.
The thing is, if Phil would just be quiet and not try to make him and MSFT sound and look so righteous, people would get far less annoyed by him. It’s the fact that he does that and then turns out to often contradict himself that people find obnoxious and hard to respect.
Not much they could do with those, contracts. Outer Worlds was published by Take-Two's Private Division label, they would have contracted out Obsidian for a release on Xbox, PC, and PS4, so they couldn't break contract. Likewise Psychonauts 2 and Wasteland 3 were crowd funded indie games, and their crowd funding campaigns had promised a PS4 release, so Xbox couldn't cancel the PS4 version without opening themselves up to a possible class action lawsuit.
But overall I agree, it's time for Phil to take off the kid gloves and drop the whole nice guy image, I don't really see where the nice guy routine is getting him anywhere, regulators are still being dicks with the ABK acquisition, Sony are still being dicks by hatting games off of Xbox left and right and trying to undermine Xbox at every possible turn, Nintendo are still being dicks by not putting any of their 1st or 2nd party games onto Xbox even though Xbox gives them some of their 1st and 2nd party games (like Ori, Goldeneye remaster, and more). Nice guys finish last in this world unfortunately. Time to fight fire with fire and roll around in the mud and the muck of the console wars just like the rest of the competition.
He doesn't play the nice guy, he just pretend and that is the whole point of the discussion.
In one of the filings to regulators over ABK, they referred to Bethesda games as being timed console exclusive to Xbox. That doesn't guarantee they'll later be released on another platform, but it at least raises the intriguing possibility that they will later come to PS, the same as Sony games later come to PC. Personally, I'd support that. Microsoft gets times exclusives, PS owners eventually get the games, Microsoft gets more revenue, and everyone wins.
I would say it raises the point of MS misleading regulators into thinking the title will go to other consoles in the future, but then it never releases and they say "plan changed".
That could happen. But Microsoft hasn't explicitly said this, it was in the fine print and not called out prominently. So they don't seem to be making a big point about it.
Personally, I'd like them to experiment with releasing titles on PS, after a delay period that approximately matches the delay Sony does with PC titles. And keep doing it as long as sales justify it.
Not sure if MS will move from Day One on PC, even more if the title is also Day One on GP. But well plans may change.
I was saying Microsoft should have a PS release cadence akin to Sony's PC release cadence. Ie., if Sony waits 18 months for the PC release, Microsoft should wait 18 months for the PS release.
I wasn't attempting to suggest any change to Microsoft's PC release being Day One. That should stay the same, IMO.
Owwww gotcha, it makes sense.
Meaning however long Sony thinks people should wait for PC games, Microsoft can make PS players wait the same amount of time. Microsoft gets the benefit of a timed-exclusive, but PS users get the game in the end too, and it would be hard for Sony fans to complain as Sony is dictating how long the wait is! :)
Nope, you know he wasn't clear, because if he was there would be no challenge the discourse by FTC and CMA.
The only ones that actually believe that are the deniers from two years ago that were too busy going “what is Phil really saying?” when the rest of were saying new games would be exclusive, ports/remakes/remasters would be multiplatform, and current live service games would continue to receive content parity, and unsurprisingly, that’s exactly what’s been happening to a T. And this was based off of comments even before the deal was finalized. Now those same deniers from 2 years ago are trying to deny what was said then and disorient what actually happened, and now are trying to use this Redfall deal as a gotcha moment, whereas the rest of us are going…..we told y’all and so did Phil. Just didn’t want to believe him in still holding out hope.
You're not from the U.S., so everyone from the US can tell you ever since Trump, every federal department, including the FTC plays political games for their party's agenda. So much so that Biden isn't even allowing the FTC anymore additional funding because of how much they've misused their money. Even a judge that the FTC would go to threw out the "gamers case" and murdered their case, borderline calling them idiots lol. The CMA on the other hand...has consistently made themselves look like idiots themselves with made-up rules they've come up with. Even then, they've began to lean more towards worrying about Cloud than anything else since they know their case won't hold up. Which is why MS is securing those cloud streaming deals. Nothing about this has been about Zenimax.
Get out of here with that disingenuous nonsense. You know darn well that Xbox has a console to sell and releasing every 1st party game as a multiplat makes it impossible to sell a console. There is a reason that every console has exclusives. Xbox is far more friendly about how many games they release on other platforms than Sony or Nintendo are and you darn well know it. Xbox has released 1st party games on every platform over the last few years, from Switch to PS4 to PS5 to PC. Now they have just signed deals to release first party Xbox games on 3 different cloud services other than their own. Redfall, Starfield, Forza etc. would probably even be on PS5 if Sony allowed Gamepass onto PS5.
Oh boy the mental gymnastics involved in what you just said! Sony is looking mighty good right now with this news and MS image is getting absolutely crushed, literally being exposed to be paying to take away games from rivals. Sony on the other hand? Bought Bungie and kept all current and future games multi, can MS say the same not even close.
3 diff cloud services? woooow are you really using that as some kind of win? Im waiting for the 10yr deal MS will give Atari next! Or even the dead Stadia, MS will give that deal to literally any company that can hold a pen, not to mention 1 of those cloud services that nobody has ever heard of, its actually really really suss and everyone agrees they shouldnt do business with them, you know that one with the name nobody can remember because they are some random unknown service that nobody uses.
Lying Phil at his finest right here and here you are, an xbox fanboy ready and waiting to defend with your life. Just take the L, its well earned.
You would know what it’s like taking an L
Go back and look at all the quotes regarding Zenimax and you’ll see everything you need to know
Oh puhlease. Bungie negotiated for multiplat releases in their acquisition contract, if Bungie hadn't done that Destiny 2 would already have stopped seeing support on Xbox, it was pulled from Gamepass months before the original Gamepass deal was due to expire and like 2 weeks before the acquisition announcement afterall. Meanwhile Sony has paid publishers to not release countless games on Xbox over the years, FF7 Remake and it's upcoming sequel, FF16, KOTOR Remake, Forspoken, Silent Hill 2 remake, Stellar Blade, Kena Bridge of Spirits, Stray, Deathloop, Ghostwire Tokyo, and many more. Not to mention paying publishers to release exclusive content in their games, like every CoD game since 2015 and Hogwarts Legacy.
Imagine thinking that Microsoft's image is somehow dirtier than Sony's image is right now, simply because they asked a developer they bought in a $7b deal to start releasing exclusives. SMH
It would be good if you actually brought an argument built on facts then just throwing out complete nonsense. I suggest you go back and reread statements you believe you are paraphrashing correctly so you can get your story correct.
I'm pretty sure there is a lot of people claiming MS objective isn't selling more consoles.
Sames as every other game bethesda was making. But we still had people denying and lying.
Just like Deathloop and Ghostwire right...
If they didnt made a deql they would get nicles , and it was kinda shady from bethesda doing it and getting a shit ton of money knowing they would be selling themselfs to microsoft. At least those two made money , imagine if they would be gamepass exclusives.
Cool. Seeing this article right next to one saying "Arkane is looking to remove always online requirement from Redfall" is pretty telling. Doesn't sound like much of a loss to PS users.
Why would you say that. Without actually playing the game no one knows if its a lost or not. The new Diablo also has always online, would you say taking that game off PS system would also not be much of a loss.
I just think that 'always online' games have far more history being bad or poorly implemented than games that aren't 'as a service'. Some exceptions happen, sure, but outside of games that are exclusively multiplayer like Fortnite, I just don't see any excuse to have any game 'always online'. It was stupid for SimCity 2013, it was stupid with Diablo III, it will be stupid for this, and I also think it will be stupid for Diablo IV.
Hell, I love Elden Ring, but being booted back to the main menu if my internet flickers is the second most infuriating thing about that game. The first being invaders, but that is neither here nor there.
And if this is a forced multiplayer game, then I lost all interest in it. I was under the impression it was a game you could play solo but could also play coop, kinda like Left 4 Dead or Back 4 Blood. you know, games that give you options. but it sounds more and more like a game as a service, and I'm not letting my gaming hobby be a damn job. there's a reason I don't play MMOs or Destiny or Fortnite or anything like that. Clearly many people do like those games, but it's also clear that many of PS's best successes are singleplayer focused.
So I just don't think the Sony fanbase will cry for the loss of another game as a service model when they have shit like Final Fantasy XVI, God of War Ragnarok, Spider Man 2, and many other strong singleplayer games to chose from. IT just doesn't seem to be the market that Sony tends to cater the most to. It feels more like what Microsoft is catering to. So no real loss.
It's not a forced co-op game. It can be played solo. There is an article that is about rolling back the required online with a real lack of comments since its not as controversial.
but as of right now it still has forced online. That's the point. I used examples of games that were able to be played solo but required online connectivity. And that's bad. And stupid. That article said they were considering or looking into it, not that it was happening. Unless I misread.
His exact quote was, “And we have already started work to address this in the future. We have to do some things like encrypt your save games and do a bunch of UI work to support it. And so we are looking into—I'm not supposed to promise anything—but we're looking into and working actively toward fixing that in the future."
So it’s actively being worked on rather than just in the “we’re considering it” state, but still, this will be a post-launch update. Similar to Back 4 Blood. This definitely dropped a lot of my optimism for the game, but I’m remaining cautiously optimistic.
So you don't deny that originally it would be an always online even for SP portion?
Why would I deny thatI? It was literally in black and white that would be the case lol.. I cancelled my pre-order when Arkane announced the game would always require internet.
So it is very likely that a lot of elements on the game where though on the base of always online and GAAS right?
Where are you getting GAAS? Lol the devs have made it clear it was never going to be a live-service. Arkane has never made one. There is no store or mtx. That is a core part of a game if it was designed to be a GAAS.
Why do you think even with a delay, Suicide Squad can't be changed as a GAAS because that core functionality was built in from the start.
Not a big loss. This game looks boring.
Not 3rd person action adventure enough for you?
Yes, I don't like shooters in general. So another FPS... "bang bang piew piew" oh great !
Good forbid you don't like a type of game =p
I know ^^
