Redfall launching on Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass subscription service is something that is both "shocking" and "scary" for the developers at Arkane Studios, according to studio director Harvey Smith. When Redfall launches later this year, it will be the first time that an Arkane Studios game has released for Xbox Game Pass on day one, but all future games from the studio will almost certainly be day one Xbox Game Pass releases as well.
One Arkane game has already been published since Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda went through in the form of first-person shooter game Deathloop. However, Microsoft honored pre-existing agreements between Bethesda and Sony in regard to Deathloop, meaning the game was a PS5 exclusive for an entire year. After Deathloop's PS5 exclusivity ran out, the game wasted no time debuting on Xbox through the Game Pass service.
No such agreements exist with open world co-op shooter Redfall, so it will debut on Xbox Game Pass the very same day it releases. Speaking to GamesRadar, Smith described this as "kind of shocking" and "scary in a way" because of the sheer number of people that could potentially play Redfall at launch. This will result in a lot more feedback out of the gate than the team had anticipated. Smith also described Redfall as Arkane's "pandemic game," indicating that it was primarily made during the COVID-19 pandemic. What this potentially means for its scope or quality, if anything at all, is hard to say at this point, but fans should find out later this year.
As it stands, no official Redfall release date has been announced. Originally, Redfall was supposed to launch at some point in 2022, but the release date was delayed to the first half of 2023. While no public release date has been announced, though, reliable leakers have indicated that there's been another internal delay for the game, meaning fans may be waiting even longer to get their hands on the game.
If the leaks are true, Redfall's internal delay means that the game won't ship until May 2023, whereas it was previously planned for some time in March or April. There was some concern that this would in turn mess with Starfield's release date, as Bethesda's open world sci-fi RPG was said to be launching after Redfall, but that may no longer be the case. Starfield is still expected to launch in the first half of 2023, so it's possible that the game's release date is not being impacted at all by the Redfall delay. Hopefully Microsoft shares more information about both games' release dates so fans can stop guessing when they'll get to play them.
Redfall is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.
Source: GamesRadar (via Pure Xbox)