Arkane's upcoming co-op first-person shooter, Redfall, is being developed with some non-Arkane assistance. It seems id Software, the developer of the Doom series, may have a hand in Redfall's creation.
Redfall was announced at E3 as a new co-op experience from Arkane, developers of Prey and Dishonored. The game appears to be a modern take on co-operative first-person shooters, which have recently been making a comeback as a popular genre, notably with Left 4 Dead's spiritual successor Back 4 Blood.
Ever since Redfall was revealed at E3 2021, news about the game has been somewhat scarce. This is expected, as at only a month after reveal, more promotions are probably being planned. However, an attentive fan noticed a change to the LinkedIn page of Jeff Senita, an animator at id Software. This change lists Senita as working on "additional animation" for Redfall, but the implications could spread beyond simple animation contributions. The listing has since been removed from Senita's profile, but fortunately, the fan who noticed the change posted a screenshot of the listing.
Currently it is unclear whether the line on Senita's profile was a simple mistake, but it seems unlikely id Software would be developing a game with the exact same title as Arkane at the same time. Arkane is well known for its immersive, cleverly-designed games like Dishonored, which apply creative and open-ended puzzle solving to a first-person perspective and allow the player freedom to approach every situation in their own way. Meanwhile, id Software is known for fast-paced action with fast reflexes and using the environment to succeed.
The removal of the line from Senita's page may indicate that he added the line before id or Arkane were ready to officially reveal the news, indicating he may have been asked by an executive to remove it. In any case, the implications of an id Software employee working on an Arkane game could range from benign to very exciting. Since Microsoft acquired Bethesda and all of Bethesda's studios, Arkane and id Software remain studios under the same parent company.
It is possible that id's animation team is simply providing assistance for Redfall's animation, but a much more exciting implication could be that Arkane and id Software are working closely together all the way down to the groundwork of Redfall. With Arkane's creative approach to puzzle-solving and Id Software's experience with developing more combat-focused games, the pairing could provide Redfall's vampire-hunting action with the best of both worlds.
Redfall is scheduled to release in 2022 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.