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[Kurotri]

Mr. Schreier has released another investigative piece, this time regarding what happened with Redfall. Some of the more juicy bits:

Redfall started development in 2018. Arkane's Prey had been a flop, ZeniMax demanded microtransactions, and management wanted to make a game with broad appeal. It was pitched as a "multiplayer Arkane game" — but it was never clear what that would mean, or how it would work.

Arkane was always understaffed, but on Redfall, attrition also became a significant problem. By the end of Redfall's development, a whopping 70% of the Arkane Austin developers who worked on Prey were no longer there, according to people familiar as well as a Bloomberg analysis.

Veteran workers who weren’t interested in developing a multiplayer game left in droves.

Arkane was also perpetually understaffed, said people familiar with its production. The studio’s Austin office employed less than 100 people— sufficient for a relatively small, single-player game like Prey but not enough to compete with multiplayer behemoths like Fortnite and Destiny, which are developed by teams of hundreds.

There is way, way more in the article:


Arkane is fuckin dead rip. At the very least, Austin is a goner. 70 % is insane. But since I couldn't even play 2 hours of Deathloop, for me Arkane Lyon isn't instilling any confidence either. Bummer.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Dayum

 

[Fake]

Well, after that shit game.


And lets be honest, the guy posted a tweet commemorate the disaster release doesn't help. They know the game was shit before release, but they launch anyway.

 

[Mister Wolf]

That's what happens when you produce back to back duds.

 

[Laptop1991]

Explains the difference in game quality for me, Arkane Austin in name only, Prey is light years better than Redfall

And Zenimax demanded Microtransactions, yep that explains Bethesda's poor output for the last 10 years

 

[splattered]

Daaamn that sucks

 

[winjer]

A real shame they killed of such a great studio.
Prey was an amazing game, that deserved a sequel, instead of this Redfall crap.

 

[amigastar]

Ok, i can understand that.
What i don't understand is why Jake Solomon had to leave Firaxis because of Marvel's Midnight Suns.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

 

[MasterCornholio]

 

[Wildebeest]

Makes sense. You would crunch in an understaffed office to make a game like Prey, but who would lift a finger if told to make a generic game with "broad appeal" just so some cigar smoking scumbag could make more money from your labor.

 

[jm89]

That $7.5 billion acquisition ain't lookin so hot.

 

[j0hnnix]

 

[Draugoth]

How much time until Arkane Austin is disolved?

 

[ungalo]

Zenimax was in deep shit before the acquisition. Hence the disastrous shift with F76, Redfall etc. even a game like Ghostwire looks like it got a reversal in the middle of its development.

That's a shame. I doubt the studios will quickly recover but they can in due time if Microsoft actually tries.

 

[Pelta88]

 

[RoboFu]

Meh, that just means there was poor management. If they had a solid plan architected at the start it wouldn’t matter who left or came in.

 

[Topher]

I take Schrierer's "investigations" with a truckload of salt personally.

 

[Luigi Mario]

By the end of Redfall's development, a whopping 70% of the Arkane Austin developers who worked on Prey were no longer there, according to people familiar as well as a Bloomberg analysis.

For those who were wondering what happened to Arkane Austin after the Redfall reviews came out.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Fuck Bethesda (zenimax) management!

 

[Germuso]

Rip

 

[Flabagast]

LMAO I remember all the shills saying that Arkane definitely wanted to make this project.

No guys, it was a turd concept forced onto them, you should have seen it, as now the studio is basically dead.

 

[Unknown?]

Zenimax was in deep shit before the acquisition. Hence the disastrous shift with F76, Redfall etc. even a game like Ghostwire looks like it got a reversal in the middle of its development.

That's a shame. I doubt the studios will quickly recover but they can in due time if Microsoft actually tries.

wearelaughing.gif

I'm sure the extra money they got will help but when has Microsoft been known for fixing up a poorly run studio?

 

[Bernoulli]

Meh, that just means there was poor management. If they had a solid plan architected at the start it wouldn’t matter who left or came in.

The new management will save the studio

 

[reksveks]

Microsoft should have killed it when they came in but understand the reason of not trying to disrupt the newly acquired studio especially if you are looking to buy more. Definitely didn't work out.

 

[ungalo]

wearelaughing.gift

I'm sure the extra money they got will help but when has Microsoft been known for fixing up a poorly run studio?

never so far i think but they are more pressured than ever to improve on that front

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

From the same article:

The acquisition gave some staff at Arkane hope that Microsoft might cancel Redfall or, better yet, let them reboot it as a single-player game, according to sources familiar with the production. Instead, Microsoft maintained a hands-off approach. Aside from canceling a version of Redfall that had been planned for rival Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, Microsoft allowed ZeniMax to continue operating as it had before, with great autonomy. Microsoft's Spencer would later say in the Kinda Funny interview that Xbox "didn't do a good job early in engaging Arkane Austin."

Fucking yikes Microsoft with your hands-off approach! Phil, you better fire that incompetent zenimax leadership right about now!

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

Certainly explains why Redfall is such a mess. I wonder if anyone will come back now that MS bought them and they won’t be forced to make anything anymore.

 

[solidus12]

 

[lughnasadh123]

I get why the higher ups wanted to go that route with the current shift in the gaming market and a lot of their SP games not exactly lighting the charts on fire. It's too bad, really. Despite (some) people not wanting another multiplayer game, I really do wonder how this game would have been received if they had a properly staffed, funded, and motivated team working on this with the time it needed to get iron out the kinks.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Developers under Smith and Bare said the two leads were outwardly excited but as the project progressed failed to provide clear direction. Staff members said that, over time, they grew frustrated with management’s frequently shifting references to other games, such as Far Cry and Borderlands, that left each department with varying ideas of what exactly they were making. Throughout the development, the fundamental tension between single-player and multiplayer design remained unresolved.

20 years later the main dudes behind Deus Ex: Invisible War and the Area 51 games are still fucking up. Prey was only good because of Colantonio.

 

[Kacho]

and convincing some progressive or moderate video game developers to move to Texas could be difficult due to the state’s conservative social policies.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Arkane's Prey had been a flop

Thank you gamers for this wonderful gift. You guys ruined gaming. I dont blame MS for Arkane going downhill, I blame modern gamers for ignoring quality products. We will never have a Prey 2, nor will we ever have an immersive sim ever again. Hope you enjoy your garbage coop gaas games from now on. Dumbasses.

 

[Silver Wattle]

From the same article:

Fucking yikes Microsoft with your hands-off approach! Phil, you better fire that incompetent zenimax leadership right about now!

Hands off with zenimax? Wtf were they smoking?

 

[Riky]

Strange thing is there is no store in the game, it's just a single player game you can play co-op but has no matchmaking.

 

[YCoCg]

Well, after that shit game.

No they left DURING the game being made.

 

[Ozriel]

That $7.5 billion acquisition ain't lookin so hot.

Yes, Microsoft spent $7.5bn to buy Arkane

 

[ungalo]

20 years later the main dudes behind Deus Ex: Invisible War and the Area 51 games are still fucking up. Prey was only good because of Colantonio.

Well Prey was only Colantonio i believe, Smith worked at Lyon at the time.

Still Smith has a good track record despite some fails, he was still co-director on Dishonored and director on Dishonored 2.

 

[nemiroff]

That's what happens when you produce back to back duds.

Well.. The story is a bit more interesting than that kind of 2D distillation. The article clearly points at, not surprisingly, impatient leadership who pressured a solid single player team (the article is about Zenimax and the Austin team, not the Lyon team per se) to make a multiplayer title with microtransactions in focus. And people left well before Redfall was finished.

 

[jm89]

Yes, Microsoft spent $7.5bn to buy Arkane

Yeah cause that's what I meant.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

So it looks buying studios is one thing, making them produce good games is something different altogether. Microsoft just can't catch a break.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Development of Redfall began in 2018. At the time, ZeniMax — the large, privately held owner of Bethesda Softworks — was looking to sell itself. Behind the scenes, the company was encouraging its studios to develop games that could generate revenue beyond the initial sales, a popular trend dubbed "games as a service," which was taking off in the late 2010s thanks to lucrative hits like Overwatch and Fortnite.

According to people familiar with the process, ZeniMax was strongly urging developers at its subsidiaries to implement microtransactions — that is, recurring opportunities within games for players to spend real money, say, outfitting their characters. Although this wasn't an absolute mandate, several ZeniMax franchises such as Fallout, Doom and Wolfenstein would soon release new versions incorporating online multiplayer and monetization options

As a fan of immersive sims and prior Arcane games I'm fuming.

 

[8BiTw0LF]

 

[Astray]

So it seems my fears were founded after all.. The Austin studio could very well die soon.

That Harvey Smith interview where he talked about dropping PS5 was kinda peculiar to me, almost like a fuck you to upper management on his way out or something. I might be wrong, but I firmly expect to at least see a management shake-up there somehow.

Genuinely hope Arkane can survive this game without too much restructuring.

Normally bad games just bomb for 3rd parties and people gradually forget about them, but this game seems like it has something special about it: It was cause of great embarassment for Arkane's parent company (Microsoft), which not only made it into an ad-hoc 1st party exclusive, but also put a lot of weight on it as a system seller and worked hard to hype it up. As a result, now the perceived reputation of the platform's upcoming games is kind of seen through this lens, which isn't a great situation and will likely require years to wash off with good releases.

Not only did Phil put a lot of his weight and credibility behind this title, but it was even mentioned by Satya during an earning call right before its disastrous release, this level of high-profile embarrassment simply won't fly, and I predict that we will see high-profile departures from Arkane because of this kerfuffle.

--------

I get why the higher ups wanted to go that route with the current shift in the gaming market and a lot of their SP games not exactly lighting the charts on fire. It's too bad, really. Despite (some) people not wanting another multiplayer game, I really do wonder how this game would have been received if they had a properly staffed, funded, and motivated team working on this with the time it needed to get iron out the kinks.

Ultimately, what keeps a studio afloat is revenue, making a great game that doesn't sell will eventually consign the studio to either pivot to more money-making enterprises or just close.

People rag about impatient management or upper level execs, but ultimately they are the ones who are constantly staring at what could be a financial black hole and wondering how to fill it up.

If people bought Prey or Dishonoered 2 things would have been far different.

 

[Wildebeest]

Thank you gamers for this wonderful gift. You guys ruined gaming. I dont blame MS for Arkane going downhill, I blame modern gamers for ignoring quality products. We will never have a Prey 2, nor will we ever have an immersive sim ever again. Hope you enjoy your garbage coop gaas games from now on. Dumbasses.

Games like Prey are not big "experience" games with huge launches. They are slow burn community driven word of mouth games. Don't blame GaaS for this, it is dumping a game like Prey into the AAA single player experience driven game market and expecting it to get ace reviews from those reviewers and get huge day one sales numbers. Some millennial games media puke who only loves Naughty Dog games is not going to hype up Prey.

 

[Ozriel]

Yeah cause that's what I meant.

That’s exactly what your comment implies. Not my fault that spelling it out for you makes it look really absurd.

 

[00Magnum Gaming]

Sony is making the same mistake smh.

 

[Fake]

Skill up guy must be down. He love that Prey game.

 

[Darsxx82]

Microsoft should have killed it when they came in but understand the reason of not trying to disrupt the newly acquired studio especially if you are looking to buy more. Definitely didn't work out.

Exactly. Imagine the reactions if the first thing MS does when acquiring Zenimax is fire the top managers and cancel "a promising Arkane vampire game."
It is not an easy situation in the public eye and neither in view of possible future acquisitions by Studios. It was not an easy situation and MS preferred to bet on maintaining the structure and independence of Zenimax.

That said, Zenimax's line of betting on GAAS games is another reflection of where the industry is unfortunately heading.

 

[nemiroff]

As many of us are saying, Phil really needs to implement some oversight mechanics.. I understand that the hands-off approach is working for Playground games f.ex. (and even third parties like Asobo), but in the case of f.ex. 343 and Arkane Austin, it's clearly not working.