Highlights
- The 2023 Game Awards had exciting video game announcements but lacked recognition for the developers.
- Marvel's Blade was a surprising announcement that captured the attention of the entire video game industry.
- Redfall, an anticipated game by Arkane Austin, was a disappointment due to repetitive gameplay and technical issues. It is now up to Arkane Lyon to redeem the studio's reputation with Marvel's Blade.
The 2023 Game Awards was a bit of a mixed bag overall. While it had a ton of fun guest appearances and a plethora of exciting video game announcements, this year's Game Awards didn't really feel like it was celebrating the people who made the year's best games all that much, with each award winner being ushered off the stage after just 30 seconds of speech time. That being said, the announcements were abundant this year, and some were genuinely surprising, with one of the biggest surprises of the night being Marvel's Blade.
A trailer that mainly focused on a man getting a quick shave seemingly in the middle of some kind of apocalypse, the reveal for Marvel's Blade kept fans guessing until the very last second, and it's one of the few announcements in recent Game Awards years that has genuinely taken the entire video game industry by surprise. But while it's only been known about for about a day, Marvel's Blade already has some heavy pressure on its shoulders, with it being the next Arkane release after the disastrous Redfall.
5 Games Missing From The Game Awards 2023
The Game Awards 2023 featured a lot of game reveals, announcements, and trailers, but several highly anticipated games didn't make it to the show.
Marvel's Blade Can Easily Make Up For Redfall
Redfall Was One of the Most Disappointing Games of 2023
Set to be the first big AAA Xbox first-party exclusive in ages, Redfall had insurmountable pressure on its shoulders going into release week. Having been shown off at every Xbox Showcase and presentation of the last few years, Redfall was very much being marketed as the next big thing for Xbox, and it was planned to kick off a strong 2023 for the Series X, with Starfield and Forza set to follow in the months after. But things didn't quite go to plan.
Released on May 2, 2023, Redfall was pretty much dead on arrival. A fairly repetitive co-op shooter that lacked any of the usual spirit and charm that usually comes part and parcel with an Arkane title, Redfall had an incredibly disappointing launch. But while some fans could still find the fun in Redfall's mundane gameplay loop, the game's litany of technical issues soon put an end to that as well. With broken enemy AI, visual bugs, and some atrocious performance issues on PC, Redfall stumbled at every hurdle, quickly becoming one of the most disappointing games of 2023.
It's On Arkane Lyon to Fix Arkane Austin's Mistakes
Unfortunately, there's no denying that Redfall has put a pretty sizable stain on Arkane's otherwise flawless record. A company that's usually associated with style, substance, and quality, Arkane's image was tarnished pretty badly by Redfall, and it now looks like it might be up to Arkane Lyon to fix Arkane Austin's mistakes—ironically, with its very own vampire-themed action/adventure game, Marvel's Blade.
A project that no one was really aware of, Marvel's Blade became an instant highlight of the 2023 Game Awards, and its reveal will go down in history as one of the event's very best. The studio behind Dishonored 2 and Deathloop, Arkane Lyon has some real talent behind it, and its track record of stylish stealth-action games makes it the perfect fit for a Blade game.
Fans have been asking for a Blade game for a while now, and the sheer potential of an Arkane-led Blade project is staggering to think about. If Arkane Lyon can pull this off, then it's not only another excellent game on the developer's record but one that potentially can make fans completely forget about Redfall, though that's much easier said than done.
