Thanks to a leaked email from Matt Booty, Xbox will be closing down several studios for good. Arkane Austin is one of these studios; this dev team was responsible for developing Redfall, one of Bethesda’s biggest failures. This live-service title receives almost no attention from the players.
The studio’s closure means no more updates for the game, and the $100-cost Bite Back Edition owners will receive the same amount of credit. The Hero Pass will not be released, so the game will no longer receive any kind of content.
Xbox Is Shutting Down Arkane Austin and Redfall Will Not Receive More Updates
Jason Schreier shared that Xbox has decided to close four Bethesda-owned studios: Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, Roundhouse Games, and Arkane Austin. Ghostwire: Tokyo, The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush, and numerous other games will either receive updates or face permanent closure. One of these games will finally clarify something that fans have been asking about for a while.
Redfall has a ton of content yet to be released. The players who bought the Bite Back Edition, which cost $100, will also be set to receive the Hero Pass, which was never launched in the game. Arkane Austin will be closing for good and is offering users of the game a refund for the content that they will not receive since the game has not had any other future updates since now. The company has already talked about this and how to get the refunds.
The Hero Pass and Bite Back Edition Owners Will Get Their Money Back
Last week, many players were asking about what was happening with this particular edition and content. Following this, reports surfaced regarding the studio’s closure.
Bethesda shared a support page with the steps to receive a refund for this content. Redfall’s official social media also provided a link to apply for a refund of the content, particularly the unreleased content due to the studio shutting down.
According to the players’ Steam reviews, Redfall has received negative reviews for having no active players and being poorly optimized since the start. Critics were also claiming that the game was almost non-existent. Features like the enemy AI and the difficulty were some of the worst things that this title has; future content will not help the game endure the core gameplay being just bad.
This four-studio shutdown means that games like Mighty Doom will no longer be available to play since August of this year, and the title will also not allow any more in-game purchases. Other projects will keep being active in every store but will receive less content over the coming months. Microsoft is trying to make IPs that are more profitable and generate more earnings for the Xbox division.
What are your thoughts about this move from the studio? Let us know in the comments!
