Redfall developer Arkane Studios has confirmed that it's planning to change a feature that's drawn a relative amount of controversy. The upcoming first-person shooter has been looked at as quite the curiosity, even among Arkane's biggest fans. That's because Arkane is best known for its single-player releases, including the Dishonored series, Prey, and most recently Arkane Lyon's Deathloop. Arkane Austin is moving in a different direction, however, with what's previously been said to be the always-online Redfall.
Always online games are increasingly popular in the modern video game industry as publishers and game developers seek to monetize their playerbases. An offline player, after all, doesn't have immediate access to microtransactions. Early leaks of Redfall indicated it, too, would be heavily monetized with an in-game store and microtransactions. However, Arkane has since confirmed Redfall has no microtransactions or in-game store. It's possible that player feedback led Arkane to reverse course.
Now Arkane is ready to reverse course on another controversial decision. Arkane Austin game director for Redfall Harvey Smith says that the team is now working on an offline mode for Redfall. Speaking with Eurogamer, Smith explains that developers can react to requests for an offline mode in two ways. They can say players are always online anyway and ignore criticism, or they can show empathy to those who don't have reliable internet. Arkane it has decided to listen, but there's a catch.
Adding an offline mode to a game so heavily built around online co-op isn't easy, and is especially difficult for a game that was previously always-online. That's why Smith says that offline support for Redfall is a feature Arkane is working on for future release. Smith's language implies offline support isn't coming for launch, and may not be coming at all. Arkane is at the very least "looking into it" and "working actively toward fixing" it in down the line.
Redfall, whether it's a success or failure, is going to be looked at as an example of developers responding to criticism deep into development. Fans saw an always-online multiplayer game with what could have been heavy monetization and voiced their skepticism. Arkane's plan is now to release Redfall without microtransactions and to eventually support an offline mode.
To be fair, Arkane is in a unique situation compared to other studios making online projects. As a Microsoft-owned studio, monetization doesn't necessarily have to be Arkane's priority. Microsoft's main priority may just be keeping players happy, getting new Game Pass subscribers, and retaining those players over time. An offline mode could certainly help with that.
Redfall releases May 2 on PC and Xbox Series X/S.