Harvey Smith, former Creative Director at Arkane Austin, recently reflected on the development of Redfall, stating bluntly that the team should not have taken on a live-service project. He believes the final product failed to achieve a cohesive whole, as the project type exceeded the team's original areas of strength.
Redfall features a vampire theme, combining open-world exploration, multiplayer co-op, and shooting mechanics. Smith stated that the Arkane team had long focused on immersive sims, making the shift to a live-service shooter a difficult challenge in itself.
Ben Horne, Executive Producer at Black Pony who worked on Redfall, also admitted that the team was developing a title beyond their area of expertise. For him and Smith, returning to the game genre the team excelled at became the top priority.
Horne also mentioned that several issues coincided with Redfall's launch, including its $70 price tag and the lack of a performance mode for the Xbox version at release. The development team found that while this mode maintained a good frame rate most of the time, there were still noticeable drops, so they decided to delay its release to continue improvements. The absence of a 60 FPS mode at launch subsequently sparked significant controversy.
Microsoft later shut down Arkane Austin, resulting in nearly 100 job losses while the team was still trying to refine Redfall. Developers had requested permission from Microsoft to complete the version 1.4 update and briefly returned after being laid off to finally deliver this update.
Smith believes that after the full update to version 1.4, some aspects of Redfall gained recognition from certain players. He also stated that in the face of various reviews surrounding the title, developers can only learn from the experience and do their best to protect team members.
Redfall originally planned to release a PS5 version, but Microsoft canceled it after acquiring Bethesda. Smith and Horne have now joined Black Pony Immersive, focusing on returning to immersive sim games; the studio has not yet announced its first title.