Greed and no actual interest in video games.
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I’m sure there are lessons learned here but this is really a unique and rare situation.
Unless we see Microsoft buy a lot more publishers (I honestly don’t see many more after Activision) that have development teams currently working on unannounced titles, you can’t really apply these lessons to many other projects.
We already know that Microsoft wants these teams to shine in the way they can. That they can make the games that they want and are genuinely passionate about. We’ve seen it with their developer purchases like Oblivion, inXile, and Ninja Theory.
I don’t see this mistake repeated with Activision, regardless of what happened with Redfall. It serves Gamepass, as a product, to see a diverse lineup from Activision developers.
It seems like most of the lessons here are things that Zenimax needed to learn, but they’re in a completely different situation now.
I think the lessons from this situation that can be applied going forward has more to do with things like:
- game announcements and premieres
- announcing release windows
- garnering developer, tester, and focus testing feedback for all games going forward (regardless of how the game was developed
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The new class looks incredible fun. Will return to ESO later this year just to play the class.
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What Jason said on otherera
Of the 80ish Arkane Austin staff who worked on Prey, 55ish are no longer at the studio, including the creative director, lead systems designer, lead level designer, and lead AI engineer. (Support staff, freelancers, and Arkane Lyon employees weren’t part of that tally.) Don’t need average industry attrition rates to surmise how monumental a change that’s been for the studio.
This is why that 70% number in the Redfall article is meaningless. Jason references the Lead System Designer for Prey leaving being a big blow for the team. That guy left in July 2017, 2 months after Prey shipped. Guess who replaced him? The Lead System Designer on Prey: Mooncrash. He points out the Lead AI Engineer leaving. Guess who replaced them? An AI engineer who worked on Prey who had been at Arkane for 4 years when work on Redfall began. The Lead AI Engineer for Prey was still at the company in 2021. So he was there for the bulk of development. Lead Level Designer for Prey again was there for the bulk of development, his replacement, again, an Arkane veteran.
This wasn’t some “Multiplayer?! Ew! Ick!” mass exodus at the start of development that left Arkane to scramble and find replacements. Arkane filled those positions with existing Arkane team members who also worked on Prey.
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Xbxo took over in 2021 and you think it’s on them for not cancelling it? Sight unseen? Get a grip.
Zenimax and co knew what was happening and ignored it for years in favor of the new live service/always online status quo. Any blame is leveled by way of optics not due to any direct mismanagement by Xbox for a game 3 to 4 years in development before they even finalized the deal.
Xbox and co can take major heat for all the other stuff but this? It wasn’t their mandates and Zenimax wad allowed to function as they had… but you know this.
Like you seem very invested in trying to make this bigger than it is. And it’s odd. Most of those early decisions started with 76 and it starts with those at the very top of Zenimax. And firing or getting rid of board members or share holders is very hard. Especially, if they are obligated a return on investment.
We aren’t talking about production managers or directors but the bosss of the studio lead.
(not trying to be hostile)
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They are good people and it’s a good channel, but why they put confirmed in capital letters I don’t get. Because they too in the stream make it clear nothing is set in stone at all. So I don’t get why they say confirmed in the title.
One of the guys Mr Boomstick says he and the other guy know someone from the Fable dev team and he told them they will be blown away. They don’t say when they spoke to this person. They also mention when Xbox tweeted about Fable Anniversary a few years ago, I actually forgot about that. But I remember how people really expected it at the show back then.
Only difference is that they don’t mention Fable at all, just that trailer and the music is Fable like. The Fable talk is timestamped here
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It does line up well with Prey Documentary, especially the aftermath.
Proper evaluation of the product from Xbox would’ve been preferred. I can acknowledge that most of this is Zenimax’s fault, I notated this. My first part of the comment was me responding to the idea of not caring if someone labels it a misfire on Xbox’s part. I genuinely do not care to have that discussion. To have that written off as me trolling is extremely frustrating.
i have a feeling every time a game ms publishes doesn’t receive the “right” metacrtic score some people are going to start screaming that ms should have cancelled the game lmao
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Considering how nearly every aspect of Redfall is mediocre at best, to bad at worst, the article now makes a lot of sense. With the departures, staff being stretched thin, and MS not stepping in enough to assist, now we know how they can go from a game like Prey to a game like Redfall.
Arkane sticking with Redfall is commendable, it’s the right thing to do. I hope they can polish it up, revamp the AI, change enemy placements, and make the overall game a lot more fun to engage with. I’m more so looking forward to their next game though and hope we don’t need to wait too long before we find out what that eventually will be.
Not really surprised about Redfall’s development issues and whatnot. It probably should have been cancelled but I can understand why Microsoft wouldn’t do that. It is what it is and im hoping Arkane Austin’s next game is Dishonored 3. Pure single player first person immersive sim. Let’s go baby!!!
Just because you don’t care about it doesn’t mean other should not also. Even you must acknowledge that financially the studios output over the years has not done well. So is it really negligence for the management team to try to address that by pivoting in a new direction? Sure with hindsight it wasn’t a great move but I’d say it would be more negligent for them to have ignored the financial reality and done nothing.
Quite naive from my perspective as the developer wasn’t “gutted” as this would imply the team was reduced directly by management, it wasn’t it lost the numbers via attrition. Happens all the time all over the place. Even more naive to make this judgement of an article from Jason who clearly has an agenda (he’s entitled but it must be noted) based on information from a disgruntled employee who will also have a bias.
So who should dictate what is made? The development teams with no idea of the overall picture or financials take a vote each month to decide on direction and if they feel like dump the current project for a new one?
Calm down and take some time to digest the reality of how businesses work? Don’t dismiss others opinions because they don’t fit with yours?
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If anyone makes Dishonored 3, it would be Arkane Lyon, not Arkane Austin.
It feels like an odd game to fix up but I’m curious what they do, they could definitely make it a lot better if they tighten up the gunplay and AI but overall the game has some pretty big flaws that would require a major overhaul to fix. It makes me think of Rage 2 - that game had some pretty major issues but the minute to minute gameplay is so fun it’s worth playing regardless. Maybe they can get it to that stage with some time.
Overall I’m with you though, I’m just excited for whatever they do next and hope they don’t dedicate TOO much to fixing Redfall that they delay those plans.
Staff turnover is a very common phenomenon in the gaming industry. Naughty Dog had something like 70% employee turnover as well during the development of Last of Us Part II: Naughty Dog’s crunch culture is reaching its limits ahead of The Last of Us Part II, according to new report | Android Central
My problem with people like Jason Schreier is he’s extremely selective with the outrage & clickbaity headlines. People look at those articles about Redfall & go “OMG this is so bad!” without any broader context regarding how the rest of the industry operates.
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Will be ‘Xbox management issues again’. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it.
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Amazing not one for PS especially with Factions. That one was a real eye opener.
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To be fair, the higher ups ARE Arkane too. Phil can’t go around polling all devs for their views and ultimately a developer is not a democracy. You don’t just make the game that the majority of people in a developer want to make.
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Hey Xboxera peeps, I know some of you are still salty about Jason Schreier and his reporting on Xbox games, but trust me, it’s not worth it. He’s just doing his job, and he’s not biased against Xbox or anything. He’s just telling it like it is, and sometimes that means bad news for us. But that’s okay, because we have plenty of good news too, like Starfield, Fable, Forza Motorsport, Avowed and more. So let’s not waste our energy on hating him or the PlayStation fans who might gloat over his articles. Let’s just enjoy our games and our community, and be respectful of others. Life’s too short to hold grudges, right?
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