Reported Redfall roadmap could’ve saved the game before Arkane Austin closure

Even though Redfall didn't make the splash that it wanted to at launch, it certainly didn't deserve to have its team gutted for parts. May 7 brought some pretty horrible news, as inside Bethesda, four entire teams have been stripped or shut down.

The casualties included the teams that worked on the hugely popular Hi-Fi Rush, Mighty Doom, and even The Elder Scrolls Online. As the Redfall team joins these ranks, its shuttering grows even more depressing, as it looks like an upcoming update could've brought Redfall back from the brink.

Redfall team reportedly working on an update before it was closed

Arkane Austin's closure has been a marker for how all it takes is one flop for an entire game studio to be shut, and it's made all the more depressing by the revelation that the team was apparently working to recover Redfall before it suffered at the hands of Microsoft.

As reported by IGN, the team at Arkane Austin was working on a DLC and updates for Redfall, all in hopes of bringing eyes back to the game while improving the bugs and glitches that turned it upside down for players. There was apparently every intention of delivering a hefty boost to the game around Halloween 2024.

The Hero Pass was offered to players who bought Redfall's special edition of the game and was set to introduce two new characters to the game. Now that it has been formally scrapped, Arkane Studios has confirmed that players who bought the version of the game, including the Hero Pass, can claim back the upgrade's value. 

Though Redfall will remain operable for players who want to get involved, it was never released in the way it was hoped to - leaving its state pretty rough. The vampiric title didn't perform as Bethesda hoped, but whatever awaited in the future is gone now. Microsoft would have hell to pay if the gaming community could rally rather than bicker.