Blame for Redfall’s poor showing is now falling on Microsoft’s shoulders

At this point, you might as well stick a thermometer in it because Redfall is officially cooked. This anticipated vampire-themed looter shooter was supposed to be one of Microsoft, Bethesda, and Arkane Austin’s big releases for the year (commanding a $70 price point), but the end result was a half-finished, buggy, and unsatisfying product when it came out earlier this month.

With terrible reviews and soggy sales making this a “Redfail” of epic proportions, fingers of blame are pointing at Microsoft for not shepherding the title better. Bloomberg investigated the situation and found that the parent company knew of issues with Redfall for years but didn’t do enough to intervene or hold off the launch.

“To the makers of Redfall, the mediocre reception was no big surprise,” Bloomberg argues. “The project suffered from unclear direction, frequent attrition, and a perennial lack of staff, according to more than a dozen people who worked on the game, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.”

According to the piece, one of the underlying issues for Redfall’s poor showing was an understaffed studio that saw up to 70% of its workers leave rather than work on a multiplayer title.

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