Microsoft Apologizes For RedFall
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has acknowledged that the expensive Redfall game is a disappointment and apologized.
We don’t really hear Microsoft apologizing for much, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has addressed the overwhelmingly negative response to Redfall, the co-op vampire slaying first-person shooter. Spencer stated that he’s taking full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great—but simply isn’t—especially after Xbox raised the price of its games while adopting the new industry pricing standard—along with Ubisoft and all other major gaming developers.
According to IGN, Phil Spencer apologized on behalf of Microsoft, acknowledging the disappointment coming from a $70 game that arrived in a state in which Redfall has. To be entirely honest, this is entirely expected from Bethesda, a company that launched the infamous Fallout 76, a game so bad that it took the studio a whole year just to fix the game’s various issues. However, we didn’t expect this from Arkane Austin, a studio that worked on and delivered the beloved Dishonored gaming series, which is still very much popular among gaming audiences.
Back to Microsoft’s apology regarding Redfall. It’s quite possibly the first apology we got from the company since the lackluster launch of Windows Vista—a massive disappointment of an operating system. But Microsoft redeemed itself by launching Windows 7 and subsequent Windows 10 OS, which were fantastic by all means. Unfortunately, they lost nearly all support from Fortnite and Steam. But the latest apology is actually revealing a much larger problem that the gaming industry faces nowadays, and one we have to address—the lack of quality.
In the case of Microsoft’s failure with Redfall, it’s the lack of quality in terms of features promised and in terms of gameplay. The company previously promised that the game would run at 60 frames-per-second, and then failed to deliver on that promise. That’s okay; our hearts turned to steel after the lackluster launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which is now playable. But we expected gaming developers to learn from CD Projekt RED’s mistakes, not to adopt them as the new game release tactics.
So, the FPS lock to 30 frames-per-seconds could be redeemed entirely if the game wasn’t such a bland and dull gaming experience. No amount of polish and delays could fix a bland gaming experience. Most gamers would rather have an exceptional gaming title locked at 30 frames-per-second than a half-baked gaming product that looks great and does nothing but sit there looking pretty. But the creatives at Microsoft obviously thought that launching eye candy that’s an obvious waste of $70 is what the gaming community wants.
Luckily, Phil Spencer doesn’t feel that way, having stated that both Microsoft and Arkane remain adamant about fixing Redfall into a gaming experience worth the premium price gamers already paid. We sincerely hope that the already-delayed Starfield doesn’t share the same fate as Redfall, especially since it’s in Bethesda’s kitchen. Or we might be looking at yet another half-baked gaming release that’s going to take a whole year of patching just to make it decent. We don’t know yet, but considering that even Star Wars Jedi: Survivor managed to disappoint, we wouldn’t be surprised.
