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According to studio director Harvey Smith, the launch of Redfall on Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service is something that “shocks” and “scares” the developers at Arkane Studios. When Redfall releases later this year, it will be the first time an Arkane Studios game has released on Xbox Game Pass on Day 1, but almost certainly all of the studio’s subsequent games will also release on Xbox Game Pass Day 1.
An Arkane game has already been released since Microsoft acquired Bethesda, in the form of the first-person shooter Deathloop. However, Microsoft honored pre-existing agreements between Bethesda and Sony regarding Deathloop, which meant the game was a PS5 exclusive for a full year. After Deathloop’s PS5 exclusivity ended, the game wasted no time in debuting on Xbox via Game Pass.
In the case of open-world co-op shooter Redfall, there’s no such deal, so the game will debut on Xbox Game Pass on the same day it launches. Smith called it “kind of shocking” and “kind of scary” due to the sheer number of people potentially playing Redfall at launch. This will result in much more feedback than the team anticipated. Smith also called Redfall a “pandemic Arkane game”, noting that it was mostly created during covid. What that might mean for its scope or quality, if anything, is hard to say at this point.
There is currently no official release date announced for Redfall. Redfall was originally supposed to release in 2022, but the release date was pushed back to the first half of 2023. While no release date has been announced, reliable sources have said that there was another internal delay to the game, which means that players may have to wait even longer.
