Redfall is a good example of why we should be happy some games gets cancelled. Microsoft simply should have cancelled it... honestly it was that bad I sincerely believe that would have been better for them in the long run.
It must have been clear to anyone in the position to decide on this that the game was simply going to crash and burn upon release because of the state it was in. If they didn't see that, it paints a very bleak picture of management at Bethesda or Microsoft.
That'd be really interesting and would love to see it pulled off. I think nerdslayer's done a couple "success of a game" (maybe for warframe), but it's been a long time. Only issue is it might be kind of hard to define and reasonably piece together signs of a "classic birth" and what is a classic today. Maybe certain markers would have to be highly influential games, were maintenanced for 5+ years, or receive regular spikes in steam user playcounts or slow falloff. Fortnite would probably qualify, even though I don't play it (really liking Hunt:showdown, though). I know a battle royale game HAS to be on this type of series. Games I'd personally nominate are Factorio by Wube Software and Deep Rock Galactic by Ghost Ship Games. Oh, and Klei software can probably place with Don't Starve. They've made quite a few different styles of game now from Shank and Mark of the Ninja to longform Oxygen Not Included and Don't Starve projects. Relogic's Terraria is probably a really solid candidate too.
unfortunately you get alot more info from failures than you do successes. its also easier to avoid pitfalls than it is to recognise marks of lasting greatness. like, how many time have we seen people/companies try to imitate the success of another project or career, only to fail epically.
Another game that died in less than a year. Man, these studios are really just shells of what they used to be. Looking forward to "Death of a game: Dragon Age: Dreadwolf" Don't know when that game is coming out, but Bioware is a shell of what it used to be as well.
Inquisition for all its flaws is one of my favorite games of all time. I’m hoping against hope that Dread Wolf will be, at worst, an Andromeda-style dull fest, and not, I dunno, Marvel’s Avengers.
The only Dragon Age game I liked was the first one, but I'm actually optimistic about the next Mass Effect. They're going to be using Unreal instead of that godawful Frostbite engine, so there should be a lot less technical issues to deal with. And even more importantly, Mary DeMarle is going to be the senior narrative designer for that game. If you don't know that name, she was the lead writer for Deus Ex Human Revolution and the narrative lead for Guardians of the Galaxy. If anyone can bring Mass Effect back to its glory days, it's her. So unless Bioware does something monumentally stupid and fires her, we should get a pretty good game.
I think it's really funny how the only positive thing people have to say about this game is that they think the art-style is kinda nice. Arkane's art team really carried this game on their back
Excise the multiplayer element, focus more on the story and wham, you have a game that sounds interesting. I'd play Dishonored with vampires. No one was interested in left 4 meh, twitter edition.
@@planescaped Also remove the looter shooter aspect. If the loot only differentiates by stats and doesnt have unique gameplay changing modifiers and/or abilities... Then the loot is worthless to chase after.
Live service games really seem to be speedrunning death of a game. I wonder how long Suicide Squad is gonna take, assuming it doesn't die before it's even out.
It's crazy that we've had like what, a full decade of "live service" games just absolutely failing miserably while single player games have been thriving to newer and newer heights and companies still try this nonsense. It's like how fortnite was a successful battle royale game and for who knows how long, companies tried making a fortnite killer and just failed.
Another casualty of publishers chasing trends, and a dying trend at that. Forcing a studio to make a game they don't want to make or are not experienced at making is a guaranteed recipe for failure, so the failure of Redfall is absolutely no surprise.
I think another important part of the information in the big exposé articles is that arkane literally could not hire people proficient in live service games until far too late. They weren’t allowed to disclose their next project before Microsoft did, so anyone new that they hired expected to work on another imsim and couldn’t be briefed that they were actually making a live service co op game until after being hired.
That's insane. In a way, the combat loops can still feel imsimmy in a looter game but when it comes to balancing and the effectiveness of certain approaches, they would probably have to unreasonably be neutered to keep the loot grind the main focus.
Redfall is a tragedy in many ways. Although credit where is due. They tried to improve the game, and although the core is rotten, they are trying to give a minimal quality product. There is a few people that liked the game. So at least they didn't abandon them out of respect. This is a cautionary tale that forcing a studio to work on something they don't have passion it, it will never go well.
Me, excited to see Redfall appear on my timeline; Oh no. But seriously, as someone that has loved Arkane Studios since Arx, Redfall was a knife in the gut.
Arkane died when Colantonio left. I'm more interested to see what direction he takes Wolfeye in than what the two teams at Arkane will do, because judging by their last two outputs, Deathloop and Redfall, it'll probably be shit anyway.
Most people that worked on Dishonored and Prey aren't in the studio anymore so yes, Arkane is dead, and if you ever hear about them it's just their corpse being used by a puppeteer.
Been waiting for this video since Redfall released earlier this year. Didn't know it would come so soon but life (err death?) does come at you fast as they say.
I'll absolutely give Arkane another shot. This clearly wasn't their fault entirely, despite the fact that they did ultimately make this. If their next game however, isn't good, that's when I'll jump ship. That would imply more than corporate pressure. Something is wrong behind the scenes if they can't even do what they're known for doing well.
why though? they only made one good game, rest didn't do well and commercial failures, prey was decent game but no one bought it, first Dishonor was only good game they made, 2 was trash compared to the first
@@kyotheman69 Uhhh, everyone I see online and talk to have loved their games universally. This is the first I'm hearing of that take. And Prey is amazing. I don't care if it didn't sell well. Alien Isolation didn't sell well either. Still amazing and unmatched in some areas.
TBH this game kind felt undead. In the sense that it was dead as soon as it came to life. But not like a vampire, more like a fodder zombie you can kill with one pellet from a shotgun.
Said this in live chat, but I'll post it here. Really sad to see Arkane Austin fall apart during this "game's" development. Prey 2017 and Dishonored are some of the best immersive sims I ever played. This might surprise you but I was somewhat hoping Arkane would have somehow pulled it off and bounced back after Prey despite the shit going on. When was the last time you had the opportunity to gun down Twilight fans and not go to prison afterwards? I think it's safe to say that Arkane Lyons (the Deathloop devs) has a lot of pressure to nail Dishonored 3 or whichever game they're working on. If said game is a flop, I fear both the Austin and Lyons locations will be closed as a result, especially when we've been seeing so many developer companies getting merged into other studios, loads of layoffs or worst case scenario in having their doors closed. Edit: Fixed a couple typos. Rip heart.
Sadly people who actually fail the project are not public figures and you will never hear about these cowards. We have exactly the same power struggle at my workplace where managements pushing the projects out the door because they dont want to engage with customer (introverts in managements position always a disaster) and then if product fails to deliver the promised quality (because of lack of communication once again) or deadline not met due to logistics, everyone taking the heat while the same managements taking a month vacation... I promise you the game failed because of 2-3 bad apples who's too shy to bare responsibilities for their actions while collecting their 6 figure paychecks and waiting for end of the year bonus.
the thing I love about Redfall's failure is how it clearly disproves a theory of "execs getting to where they are now thanks to being competent". While with other high profile failures, like Anthem or Marvel's Avengers, there was always at least a chance that it could work out, Redfall was doomed from the start - a product in a genre that the audiences don't want anymore (despite it being pushed so hard down their throats), made by a company with no experience or any inclination to create something like this. Whoever exec pushed for this idea (I think we can safely assume this was NOT an initiative for devs), they were simply incompetent to an egregious extent.
It's literally no surprise that this game failed. The developer clearly hated their own game and were being forced to make it by higher ups. Truly a soulless game that was dead on arrival. It's shame too because the concept was solid, it just should have been placed with a team that might know something about live service games. Arkane is good at what they do but every one of their hits have been single player.
Actually my 7th episode was a game that was still alive, but fit my definition. Sorry your fee fees got hurt, but it's pathetic to try to rewrite history to fit your weird narrative.
Man I was so excited for this game, the art, and the vibe and the vampires had me so excited, but If I’ve learned anything in my years of playing video games it’s - don’t get excited for them cuz more often than not, you will be disappointed
It's not so easy to just move on from releasing a bad game. Especially not when you're bleeding key talent. Talent is something to be nurtured, not exploited and discarded.
Man this hurts to see it on here, just about last year, I was looking forward to this game, Arkane has never made a bad game before, and this looked like a weird and cool hybrid of Borderlands gameplay and loot with Arkane's story telling.... I'm going to play it again on gamepass today thanks to this vid! I wanna give it a 2nd try, especially after it's update.
There is one game i would love you to cover, and that is the multiplayer tactical shooter called "World War 3" published by Farm 51. That game is basically dead in the water with 200-500 players on average, even though it was genuinely one of the better shooters i have played, but was handled so poorly by the devs and publishers
i come here and it always feels like ever other video i dont know the game, and i honestly love that, youve shown me more worlds and their downfalls and i appreciate it.
I feel this series is basically teaching "Zombaloids" to pay attention that just because a studio is making a game doesnt mean its going to be good. I argue that there are so many games that are streight releasing with gimmick grabs trying to target nostalgia and features of prior title varriants to draw story and then toss the AAA bait to draw quick smash and wallet grabs with the same gimmicks. 1) Game companies struggle to produce good results and make money at the same time (hense the constant give chance of dev teams to a AAA studio) 2) AAA gaming industry is basically killing gaming as it stands. A) Look at starfield, they launched the game with gray zones of what people were ok with, they basically promissed there own version of starcitizen and then launched the game with half baked features. Halo Infinite was expected to be the original expectation of Halo (the first versino they were developing, and were forced to abandon to make the OG we seen today), they promissed "open world" and features where we can do missions accordingly, but they basically did a Halo themed Destiny twist. Toss in Battlefield 2042 which has yet to do even 1/3rd of what it promissed, and its working on its 3rd year of existance. The Devs of Titanfall keep getting yanked for the good old gag that Apex is a cheap cash cow with little effort installed and the AAA industry (EA) keeps stoping them from making TF3 and tries to add TF elements back into Apex to force the player base to give in (they legit created northstar to make the game playable) B) Current AAA studios pay more "Devs" for art team then the actual programing and design teams. This means it is going to look cool and great, but the substance will fail and make the game look clunky and full of holes, which basically means you pay DLC to build the title to a finished state (meaning we havent played a full AAA release game since around the time of 2008, look at Battlefield 4 as an example, 60 dollar game, 8 DLC (30 dollars each at there launch), and you can see the issue immediately with the newer game designs, Battlefield 4 at least gave you all the story mode, multi, and tried its best for launch points. Right now EA doesnt deserve AAA title status, they have not produced AAA results in 10 years lol (they just milk the titles to save there own asses), they always have wild art teams, but where the fucks the useful devs building everything? 3) Battlebit is 30 dollars by an indie studio, a lot of indie studios are getting there games ruined by companies with consistant problems (So long as its got acceptable playability its not that bad). Age of Wonders for example was a NUTS comunity enjoyed title and after it was snatched by the Devs of Hearts of Iron, the damn game has had huge graphical changes for the better, but the game runs multiplayer like dogshit, often dysynching, extreeme stutters, and basically makes an unusable save in multiplayer (requiring a full restart of the save often), meaning its multiplayer status is bugged out of existance and crashes frequently durring combat (which the game calculates so poorly its laughable, you can lose a stack of good units to something stupid because the AI proclaims "That dies" and if you do the battle you can save the whole stack. Just because a well known name purchases something, doesnt mean the game will do better, often consistant problems rear there ugly head. Conclusion: I hate the morons that pay out of pocket for a name instead of the product. I think CoD for example needs to get erased from existance so the shooter genre in games progress past the suck ass that CoD is. Right now CoD being the most common built a community of toxic nobodies that flood forums, bitch, piss, and moan that games dont have features they want, but once the dev team gives them it, they just claim "Its just a shitty version of my favorite game" and they leave, meaning the OG target of the game get betrayed and the Devs are stuck in a patch as best you can limbo. It has been the end of so many titles, almost ended Hunt: Showdown for example, they went from 3k peek hours (Steam server, it also had only taken a year to get there), to less then 200 peek hours within a week. It took almost 2 years and 16 major updates, 6 events, 13 DLC characters and skins, and a whole new map to save the game from the brink of death, that took them to get back the crew. Following the influx and fixing of several issues, they added a few more and created a ton of meta headaches and accessability issues. All this because they wanted scopes, more cover, and slow down the TTK, Hunt showdown was a horribly unforgiving to stupid people game, if you ran in open areas into a obvious choke you died, there wasnt a question it was expected, and the devs tried to favor the morons as much as possible, they added scopes, cover, and shitty mechanics. This lead to meta games, pushed the slow growth, and created a ton of trial and error that everyone needed to fix over another year or two. They finally hit 16 thousand users, and what did it take? Basically building the game correctly and building a back-peddle work around of all the shit they did listening to people who WONT realistically play the damn game in the first place.
And Yesterday (07/05/2024), over 1 year after its release, *Redfall is **_officially_** Dead,* with the closure of Arkane Austin, no more updates and refunds (in "credits") for whoever paid for Hero Pass @nerdSlayerstudioss
You should do one for Starfield, that game just came and went just like that. People rarely talk about it now which is amazing to see given how much it was hyped by everyone, yet it fell so flat after a month.
Probably wouldn't be appropriate given it's lack of multiplayer, but I am curious how the sales will carry on in the future. The thing is, starfield likely already won. If not directly through $70+ game purchases, then indirectly through M$oft paying millions for gamepass (but given they bought bethesda, they may not have to do that, but you can credit part of the acquisition cost to starfield)
Man. I was so excited for this game. The idea of a vampire hunting simulator was so freaking cool, to me. But, a mediocre (at best) videgame with such ridiculous price tag seems hardly worth it. 😢
Looking at the premise, they'd have been far better off making it something akin to The Lost Boys, or even acquiring The Lost Boys license outright. But again like Hyenas, these devs completely fail on making interesting characters with personalities, this looks like a corporate checklist all over again.
*Hello you* well is it the devs fault or the managers. Hyenas was an unwanted game much like this one but the managers pushed forward. I honestly think a new game industry crash is on the horizon
One thing that wasn't mentioned was the terrible controls on controller. The game still suffers from an incredible amount of input delay even on hardware that natively uses a controller.
Normally I'd say I'd hope this was a one off, and get another Prey. But... well, with over half of the old crew gone, at this point I'm not expecting anything of the same quality. Although I kinda love the irony of selling out to a major corp being their downfall, what with all the blood sucking parasites and all.
Always online is a cancer that needs to be stood up to. I'm constantly on the road now. It's bad enough that I have to check every non-indie title to make sure it'll work offline, but now things like WINDOWS ITSELF are doing it. I did an online setup of Windows 11 and had to fight to keep it local. But as there are only 12 good terminals in the half of the country my work covers, I often find myself sitting cozily in my truck playing single player games. Is DRM so important that people like me get left out in the cold?
Nice video as always but I have something to add: founders often leave acquired companies because they just acquired obscene amounts of money, acquiring more freedom, which starkly contrasts having acquired de facto “new bosses”. This can’t be overlooked! When a studio we love is acquired we should be happy for the founders newfound freedom but we should also expect that the team that we admired doesn’t really exists anymore.
I'm not at all surprised that the studio behind PREY created Redfall which turned out to be another BOMB! PREY was the biggest most terminally boring game I've ever played. I could not even finish PREY. The best thing about PREY was how it started. PREY started going down hill at an ever faster rate the moment the credits ended and you got off the helicopter. The only good thing I can say about PREY is that it was a pretty game. Everything else about PREY was worse than dog poo!
Actually, Redfall has A LOT of faults, but the setting is kinda cool (Massachusetts/New England style villages aren't seen a lot in videogames, the waves frozen are really cool) and the gunplay is really solid, it felt like a good Far Cry. You really can see there was a bit of talent involves. No excuses for the other points, though.
Never had a single bit of interest in this game, but I gave it a watch on a few streams when it came out and boy was I glad I waited to see. Saved myself an easy $70 clams. Every single system felt underbaked and paint by numbers. Really hope Arkane gets to make an "Arkane game" next. Learn from Larian.
I still go back and play redfall every now and again. There is still this little spark of Arkane that shines through the bugs and boredom, which makes it all the sadder
I've been through a (not video game related) company buy-out and it was the most excruciating time in my career. The company taking over didn't care about the staff and employees or what they were doing and treated them like second class workers even years after. Walking away from a buy-out is honestly the best thing you can do and it's no surprise many studios implode shortly after. Really hope Arkane can recover, Dishonored and Prey are some of my favorite games.
You know, there was a Batman show back in the early aughts that the same people behind much of the DCAU really didn't want to make because it was a very stupid premise. It was Batman but in high school. Understandably they weren't thrilled with the idea, but said, "fine but we're doing this our way" and thus Batman Beyond was made. You can take a bad idea and make it work if you can drum up enough creativity and talent for it. Arkane was lacking in both for Redfall.
Every studio Microsoft buys just turns to shit sadly. Hi-Fi Rush was dope but thats about it. Halo is in such a deplorable state its sad (tho that was always an xbox IP, not poached). They just dont know how to handle their studios
I want a vampire game that is just like the opening of John Carpenter's vampires. A bunch of blue collar dudes efficiently exterminating a vampire den with makeshift parpoons dragging vampire into the sunlight.
Prey is hands down one of the greatest games I've ever played, seeing redfall fail and flounder the way it did hurt me to my soul especially since IMO deathloop was cool but nowhere near on the scale as Prey had been. And as much of travesty it was to see Prey not be as successful as it deserves... the real tragedy is what has happened to the team that made it.
Isn’t it great that things like films television shows video games any kind of media that has parent company or suits, make decisions on stuff they know nothing about, just dollar signs in the eyes and a desire to ape the successful.
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I swear, the window between "new game" and "dead game" is getting smaller by the year.
It's concerning how quickly some of these games are dying, huh?
Some are just DOA
@@antoniojosetorrente559It really is just free at this point 😂
@@antoniojosetorrente559It really is just free at this point 😂
@@antoniojosetorrente559It really is just free at this point 😂
Redfall is a good example of why we should be happy some games gets cancelled. Microsoft simply should have cancelled it... honestly it was that bad I sincerely believe that would have been better for them in the long run.
😢 the money still would have been lost
It must have been clear to anyone in the position to decide on this that the game was simply going to crash and burn upon release because of the state it was in. If they didn't see that, it paints a very bleak picture of management at Bethesda or Microsoft.
Microsoft wanted to cover the gap in game pass . Phil Spencer pushed for the release and refused to allow the game to delayed or cancelled.
@@Sorrowduskat some point you need to cut your losses.
@@Sorrowdusktax write off
Would be cool to see you do a "Birth of a classic" or something where you highlight why a game worked, with the same format of clues etc
This
Baldurs Gate 3 during the early access for example
Banger idea!
That'd be really interesting and would love to see it pulled off. I think nerdslayer's done a couple "success of a game" (maybe for warframe), but it's been a long time. Only issue is it might be kind of hard to define and reasonably piece together signs of a "classic birth" and what is a classic today.
Maybe certain markers would have to be highly influential games, were maintenanced for 5+ years, or receive regular spikes in steam user playcounts or slow falloff.
Fortnite would probably qualify, even though I don't play it (really liking Hunt:showdown, though). I know a battle royale game HAS to be on this type of series. Games I'd personally nominate are Factorio by Wube Software and Deep Rock Galactic by Ghost Ship Games. Oh, and Klei software can probably place with Don't Starve. They've made quite a few different styles of game now from Shank and Mark of the Ninja to longform Oxygen Not Included and Don't Starve projects. Relogic's Terraria is probably a really solid candidate too.
unfortunately you get alot more info from failures than you do successes. its also easier to avoid pitfalls than it is to recognise marks of lasting greatness.
like, how many time have we seen people/companies try to imitate the success of another project or career, only to fail epically.
Another game that died in less than a year. Man, these studios are really just shells of what they used to be. Looking forward to "Death of a game: Dragon Age: Dreadwolf" Don't know when that game is coming out, but Bioware is a shell of what it used to be as well.
Inquisition for all its flaws is one of my favorite games of all time. I’m hoping against hope that Dread Wolf will be, at worst, an Andromeda-style dull fest, and not, I dunno, Marvel’s Avengers.
The only Dragon Age game I liked was the first one, but I'm actually optimistic about the next Mass Effect. They're going to be using Unreal instead of that godawful Frostbite engine, so there should be a lot less technical issues to deal with. And even more importantly, Mary DeMarle is going to be the senior narrative designer for that game. If you don't know that name, she was the lead writer for Deus Ex Human Revolution and the narrative lead for Guardians of the Galaxy. If anyone can bring Mass Effect back to its glory days, it's her. So unless Bioware does something monumentally stupid and fires her, we should get a pretty good game.
dragon age 4 will be bad so will new mass effect, bioware is not same company anymore EA killed that company
@oeldritchnice try, troll
I remember seeing the reveal trailer and thinking "This will fail really hard". It felt souless.
I was so excited for Arkane's next game and then this ‘thing’ was revealed; what a pointless waste of a game no one wanted!
I think it's really funny how the only positive thing people have to say about this game is that they think the art-style is kinda nice. Arkane's art team really carried this game on their back
@@negative6442 Looking at the vid I also thought "it looks nice"; but that's just not enough.
Excise the multiplayer element, focus more on the story and wham, you have a game that sounds interesting.
I'd play Dishonored with vampires. No one was interested in left 4 meh, twitter edition.
@@planescaped Also remove the looter shooter aspect. If the loot only differentiates by stats and doesnt have unique gameplay changing modifiers and/or abilities... Then the loot is worthless to chase after.
Live service games really seem to be speedrunning death of a game. I wonder how long Suicide Squad is gonna take, assuming it doesn't die before it's even out.
The fastest death was Hyena
It's crazy that we've had like what, a full decade of "live service" games just absolutely failing miserably while single player games have been thriving to newer and newer heights and companies still try this nonsense. It's like how fortnite was a successful battle royale game and for who knows how long, companies tried making a fortnite killer and just failed.
I watched a streamer beat the final fight of this game without firing a single shot. Yeah, this game was beyond rough.
Was it the same streamer I saw who in the highlights also experienced a crash on the way to the final boss fight?
@@cursedhawkins1305 Very possible
Another casualty of publishers chasing trends, and a dying trend at that. Forcing a studio to make a game they don't want to make or are not experienced at making is a guaranteed recipe for failure, so the failure of Redfall is absolutely no surprise.
I think another important part of the information in the big exposé articles is that arkane literally could not hire people proficient in live service games until far too late. They weren’t allowed to disclose their next project before Microsoft did, so anyone new that they hired expected to work on another imsim and couldn’t be briefed that they were actually making a live service co op game until after being hired.
That's insane. In a way, the combat loops can still feel imsimmy in a looter game but when it comes to balancing and the effectiveness of certain approaches, they would probably have to unreasonably be neutered to keep the loot grind the main focus.
Redfall is a tragedy in many ways.
Although credit where is due. They tried to improve the game, and although the core is rotten, they are trying to give a minimal quality product.
There is a few people that liked the game. So at least they didn't abandon them out of respect.
This is a cautionary tale that forcing a studio to work on something they don't have passion it, it will never go well.
Those people have no taste or discernment and deserve only mockery
@@MDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDMDagree
Me, excited to see Redfall appear on my timeline; Oh no.
But seriously, as someone that has loved Arkane Studios since Arx, Redfall was a knife in the gut.
I had zero hope for the devs after Deathloop
@@liquidsweg4858Deathloop was still a cool game despite its obvious flaws.
@@tezeskop nah it was mid at best
Things went downhill after Dis 2🚬
Arx was one of the most unintuitive games I've ever played and I adored everything about it.
Arkane died when Colantonio left. I'm more interested to see what direction he takes Wolfeye in than what the two teams at Arkane will do, because judging by their last two outputs, Deathloop and Redfall, it'll probably be shit anyway.
Most people that worked on Dishonored and Prey aren't in the studio anymore so yes, Arkane is dead, and if you ever hear about them it's just their corpse being used by a puppeteer.
Deathloop wasnt even bad, it was just hella short
@@WaterBisquitte it really was
I'm glad you're doing the Death of a Game for "single player" stuff, thank you
Can something die, when it was never truly alive in the first place?
Not really.
Releasing a game you didn't want to develop for people who didn't want to play it is truly brave and innovative.
Really paving the way for others to push the boundaries of failure.
Been waiting for this video since Redfall released earlier this year. Didn't know it would come so soon but life (err death?) does come at you fast as they say.
This video has become pretty relevant since they just closed the arkane studio.
Redfall: A game nobody wanted to make or play. 😂
Not sure if this is related but the director behind Dishonored and Prey 2017 left Arkane Studios back in 2019.
That actually sounds important
Hearing and seeing Total Biscuit always makes me happy and sad at the same time.
Nice to know people still remember the man that set the bar for game optimisation.
That off the cuff remark legit hit me like a truck. Sigh, it will always be too soon. RIP to the GOAT 😢
R.I.P
And now Arkane Austin is officially closing down. It hurts really bad, Prey is one of my favorite games ever.
The near end of the video hits different with Arkane closing down😭😭
This was a fascinating and illuminating explanation. Thank you for taking the time to create it!
I'll absolutely give Arkane another shot. This clearly wasn't their fault entirely, despite the fact that they did ultimately make this. If their next game however, isn't good, that's when I'll jump ship. That would imply more than corporate pressure. Something is wrong behind the scenes if they can't even do what they're known for doing well.
The writing was on the wall with Death of the Outsider killing the entire Dishonored universe and Deathloop being a wet fart of a release.
Dont know about that the founders are gone so is their direction but well see
@@allenluis6995 Yeah, I didn't say their next would even be good, but Redfall doesn't speak to their usual output, is what I'm saying.
why though? they only made one good game, rest didn't do well and commercial failures, prey was decent game but no one bought it, first Dishonor was only good game they made, 2 was trash compared to the first
@@kyotheman69 Uhhh, everyone I see online and talk to have loved their games universally. This is the first I'm hearing of that take. And Prey is amazing. I don't care if it didn't sell well. Alien Isolation didn't sell well either. Still amazing and unmatched in some areas.
TBH this game kind felt undead. In the sense that it was dead as soon as it came to life. But not like a vampire, more like a fodder zombie you can kill with one pellet from a shotgun.
I love this series as I does really help to sniff out games that will probably be desastrous! Thnaks for sharpening my bad game instinct x)
Ouch, that closing line on the direction of selling to corporate. Recent news made its sting far more painful.
And Now Arkane Austin is no more...
Thanks Nerdslayer for pick up my suggestion for DOAG from discord server channel cabinet of ideas 😊
Hope you like it!
Said this in live chat, but I'll post it here.
Really sad to see Arkane Austin fall apart during this "game's" development. Prey 2017 and Dishonored are some of the best immersive sims I ever played.
This might surprise you but I was somewhat hoping Arkane would have somehow pulled it off and bounced back after Prey despite the shit going on. When was the last time you had the opportunity to gun down Twilight fans and not go to prison afterwards?
I think it's safe to say that Arkane Lyons (the Deathloop devs) has a lot of pressure to nail Dishonored 3 or whichever game they're working on. If said game is a flop, I fear both the Austin and Lyons locations will be closed as a result, especially when we've been seeing so many developer companies getting merged into other studios, loads of layoffs or worst case scenario in having their doors closed.
Edit: Fixed a couple typos. Rip heart.
Sadly people who actually fail the project are not public figures and you will never hear about these cowards. We have exactly the same power struggle at my workplace where managements pushing the projects out the door because they dont want to engage with customer (introverts in managements position always a disaster) and then if product fails to deliver the promised quality (because of lack of communication once again) or deadline not met due to logistics, everyone taking the heat while the same managements taking a month vacation...
I promise you the game failed because of 2-3 bad apples who's too shy to bare responsibilities for their actions while collecting their 6 figure paychecks and waiting for end of the year bonus.
What makes Redfall completely inexcusable is the price. Had they priced it properly like $29.99 it would have been more forgivin
When management says the word magic, you know they don't know how to make a good game.
the thing I love about Redfall's failure is how it clearly disproves a theory of "execs getting to where they are now thanks to being competent". While with other high profile failures, like Anthem or Marvel's Avengers, there was always at least a chance that it could work out, Redfall was doomed from the start - a product in a genre that the audiences don't want anymore (despite it being pushed so hard down their throats), made by a company with no experience or any inclination to create something like this. Whoever exec pushed for this idea (I think we can safely assume this was NOT an initiative for devs), they were simply incompetent to an egregious extent.
The reveal trailer had all of the red flags of the previous looter shooter live services. Fake gameplay, dialogue and uninspiring mechanics.
When the very DEVELOPERS say “we didn’t want to make this game”, you know this game was DESTINED TO CRASH AND BURN right from the get go!!
It's literally no surprise that this game failed. The developer clearly hated their own game and were being forced to make it by higher ups. Truly a soulless game that was dead on arrival. It's shame too because the concept was solid, it just should have been placed with a team that might know something about live service games. Arkane is good at what they do but every one of their hits have been single player.
Woof, knew this was coming. "Live service" is becoming a death knell for games even before their release
I really just can't get behind a looter shooter where any gun I get is not properly useable against the games main antagonistic force
As someone who feel in love with the Studio after finishing Prey this was kick in the gut. I really hope Arkane can recover from this.
This series used to be about games they got shut down and we'd never be able to play again. Now its just anything that has a low player count.
Actually my 7th episode was a game that was still alive, but fit my definition. Sorry your fee fees got hurt, but it's pathetic to try to rewrite history to fit your weird narrative.
Redfall is more of a stillborn than having lived and died
Man I was so excited for this game, the art, and the vibe and the vampires had me so excited, but If I’ve learned anything in my years of playing video games it’s - don’t get excited for them cuz more often than not, you will be disappointed
Also as soon as they announce the game is going to be live service, just move on
It's not so easy to just move on from releasing a bad game. Especially not when you're bleeding key talent. Talent is something to be nurtured, not exploited and discarded.
Man this hurts to see it on here, just about last year, I was looking forward to this game, Arkane has never made a bad game before, and this looked like a weird and cool hybrid of Borderlands gameplay and loot with Arkane's story telling....
I'm going to play it again on gamepass today thanks to this vid! I wanna give it a 2nd try, especially after it's update.
Eulogy of a game ...😢
Don't let the boys catch this video because according to them the game was a hidden gem and the update saved it
This game was never alive to even die. I got offered it countless times for free and I couldn't even bother.
There is one game i would love you to cover, and that is the multiplayer tactical shooter called "World War 3" published by Farm 51. That game is basically dead in the water with 200-500 players on average, even though it was genuinely one of the better shooters i have played, but was handled so poorly by the devs and publishers
i come here and it always feels like ever other video i dont know the game, and i honestly love that, youve shown me more worlds and their downfalls and i appreciate it.
I feel this series is basically teaching "Zombaloids" to pay attention that just because a studio is making a game doesnt mean its going to be good. I argue that there are so many games that are streight releasing with gimmick grabs trying to target nostalgia and features of prior title varriants to draw story and then toss the AAA bait to draw quick smash and wallet grabs with the same gimmicks.
1) Game companies struggle to produce good results and make money at the same time (hense the constant give chance of dev teams to a AAA studio)
2) AAA gaming industry is basically killing gaming as it stands.
A) Look at starfield, they launched the game with gray zones of what people were ok with, they basically promissed there own version of starcitizen and then launched the game with half baked features. Halo Infinite was expected to be the original expectation of Halo (the first versino they were developing, and were forced to abandon to make the OG we seen today), they promissed "open world" and features where we can do missions accordingly, but they basically did a Halo themed Destiny twist. Toss in Battlefield 2042 which has yet to do even 1/3rd of what it promissed, and its working on its 3rd year of existance. The Devs of Titanfall keep getting yanked for the good old gag that Apex is a cheap cash cow with little effort installed and the AAA industry (EA) keeps stoping them from making TF3 and tries to add TF elements back into Apex to force the player base to give in (they legit created northstar to make the game playable)
B) Current AAA studios pay more "Devs" for art team then the actual programing and design teams. This means it is going to look cool and great, but the substance will fail and make the game look clunky and full of holes, which basically means you pay DLC to build the title to a finished state (meaning we havent played a full AAA release game since around the time of 2008, look at Battlefield 4 as an example, 60 dollar game, 8 DLC (30 dollars each at there launch), and you can see the issue immediately with the newer game designs, Battlefield 4 at least gave you all the story mode, multi, and tried its best for launch points. Right now EA doesnt deserve AAA title status, they have not produced AAA results in 10 years lol (they just milk the titles to save there own asses), they always have wild art teams, but where the fucks the useful devs building everything?
3) Battlebit is 30 dollars by an indie studio, a lot of indie studios are getting there games ruined by companies with consistant problems (So long as its got acceptable playability its not that bad). Age of Wonders for example was a NUTS comunity enjoyed title and after it was snatched by the Devs of Hearts of Iron, the damn game has had huge graphical changes for the better, but the game runs multiplayer like dogshit, often dysynching, extreeme stutters, and basically makes an unusable save in multiplayer (requiring a full restart of the save often), meaning its multiplayer status is bugged out of existance and crashes frequently durring combat (which the game calculates so poorly its laughable, you can lose a stack of good units to something stupid because the AI proclaims "That dies" and if you do the battle you can save the whole stack. Just because a well known name purchases something, doesnt mean the game will do better, often consistant problems rear there ugly head.
Conclusion: I hate the morons that pay out of pocket for a name instead of the product. I think CoD for example needs to get erased from existance so the shooter genre in games progress past the suck ass that CoD is. Right now CoD being the most common built a community of toxic nobodies that flood forums, bitch, piss, and moan that games dont have features they want, but once the dev team gives them it, they just claim "Its just a shitty version of my favorite game" and they leave, meaning the OG target of the game get betrayed and the Devs are stuck in a patch as best you can limbo. It has been the end of so many titles, almost ended Hunt: Showdown for example, they went from 3k peek hours (Steam server, it also had only taken a year to get there), to less then 200 peek hours within a week. It took almost 2 years and 16 major updates, 6 events, 13 DLC characters and skins, and a whole new map to save the game from the brink of death, that took them to get back the crew. Following the influx and fixing of several issues, they added a few more and created a ton of meta headaches and accessability issues. All this because they wanted scopes, more cover, and slow down the TTK, Hunt showdown was a horribly unforgiving to stupid people game, if you ran in open areas into a obvious choke you died, there wasnt a question it was expected, and the devs tried to favor the morons as much as possible, they added scopes, cover, and shitty mechanics. This lead to meta games, pushed the slow growth, and created a ton of trial and error that everyone needed to fix over another year or two. They finally hit 16 thousand users, and what did it take? Basically building the game correctly and building a back-peddle work around of all the shit they did listening to people who WONT realistically play the damn game in the first place.
And Yesterday (07/05/2024), over 1 year after its release, *Redfall is **_officially_** Dead,* with the closure of Arkane Austin, no more updates and refunds (in "credits") for whoever paid for Hero Pass @nerdSlayerstudioss
I would be so happy for single-player immersive sim with vampires! It's such a great and fun idea, but alas....
You should do one for Starfield, that game just came and went just like that. People rarely talk about it now which is amazing to see given how much it was hyped by everyone, yet it fell so flat after a month.
Probably wouldn't be appropriate given it's lack of multiplayer, but I am curious how the sales will carry on in the future. The thing is, starfield likely already won. If not directly through $70+ game purchases, then indirectly through M$oft paying millions for gamepass (but given they bought bethesda, they may not have to do that, but you can credit part of the acquisition cost to starfield)
It will probably pick up again when Bethesda releases the modding tools they promised.
Man. I was so excited for this game. The idea of a vampire hunting simulator was so freaking cool, to me. But, a mediocre (at best) videgame with such ridiculous price tag seems hardly worth it. 😢
Looking at the premise, they'd have been far better off making it something akin to The Lost Boys, or even acquiring The Lost Boys license outright.
But again like Hyenas, these devs completely fail on making interesting characters with personalities, this looks like a corporate checklist all over again.
*Hello you* well is it the devs fault or the managers. Hyenas was an unwanted game much like this one but the managers pushed forward. I honestly think a new game industry crash is on the horizon
I can't be the only one who physically retched at reading "the telekinetic threat in student debt"
One thing that wasn't mentioned was the terrible controls on controller. The game still suffers from an incredible amount of input delay even on hardware that natively uses a controller.
I've been waiting for this.
Normally I'd say I'd hope this was a one off, and get another Prey. But... well, with over half of the old crew gone, at this point I'm not expecting anything of the same quality. Although I kinda love the irony of selling out to a major corp being their downfall, what with all the blood sucking parasites and all.
Going by 2023, next year looks exciting.
The only one cool thing about Redfall is the frozen waves...
They are quite mezmerising...
It should be called Dedfall
I think it's hilarious how when a studio is bought out all the good devs that made the studio what it is scatter lmao They're left with a name
shows that studios shgould never accept a buy out
Jesus christ, the people leaving had nothing to do with the MSoft buyout, but Zenimax themselves🤦
“We don’t have enough time or people” + “make your date or else” = games like this.
You should do The Day Before now.
when this is your first time hearing of a game, you know it died before it came out.
This is the first time you’ve heard of Redfall?
Yes Sir, @@ScreaminSeahawk
Same studio that made Dishonored series and Prey. Let that sink in…. 😢
people forget that no man's sky's comeback was the exception and far from being the norm
Always online is a cancer that needs to be stood up to. I'm constantly on the road now. It's bad enough that I have to check every non-indie title to make sure it'll work offline, but now things like WINDOWS ITSELF are doing it. I did an online setup of Windows 11 and had to fight to keep it local.
But as there are only 12 good terminals in the half of the country my work covers, I often find myself sitting cozily in my truck playing single player games. Is DRM so important that people like me get left out in the cold?
SO MUCH HYPE FOR A GAME THAT LITEALLY DIED a couple weeks after launch
Maybe the real "Arkane Magic™" was the talent we fired along the way
7:50 Weird West is an awesome game with a real unique world and play style, easy recommend from me
it speaks volumes that this game is getting a DoaG within 6 months
great work
Nice video as always but I have something to add: founders often leave acquired companies because they just acquired obscene amounts of money, acquiring more freedom, which starkly contrasts having acquired de facto “new bosses”. This can’t be overlooked!
When a studio we love is acquired we should be happy for the founders newfound freedom but we should also expect that the team that we admired doesn’t really exists anymore.
This channel is the gamer’s equivalent of Blues Clues and I love you for it
Been waiting on this one.
I'm not at all surprised that the studio behind PREY created Redfall which turned out to be another BOMB! PREY was the biggest most terminally boring game I've ever played. I could not even finish PREY. The best thing about PREY was how it started. PREY started going down hill at an ever faster rate the moment the credits ended and you got off the helicopter. The only good thing I can say about PREY is that it was a pretty game. Everything else about PREY was worse than dog poo!
I can hear TB rolling in his grave based on most games out nowadays.
Nice! Been waiting for this one! Great stuff.
corpo: lets make a lIvE sErViCe GaMe!
devs: no
suits: YOU'RE FIRED!
Actually, Redfall has A LOT of faults, but the setting is kinda cool (Massachusetts/New England style villages aren't seen a lot in videogames, the waves frozen are really cool) and the gunplay is really solid, it felt like a good Far Cry. You really can see there was a bit of talent involves. No excuses for the other points, though.
It was game that was rotten from the start, how could that have possibly gone to become a success?
Never had a single bit of interest in this game, but I gave it a watch on a few streams when it came out and boy was I glad I waited to see. Saved myself an easy $70 clams. Every single system felt underbaked and paint by numbers. Really hope Arkane gets to make an "Arkane game" next. Learn from Larian.
I still go back and play redfall every now and again. There is still this little spark of Arkane that shines through the bugs and boredom, which makes it all the sadder
What is that spark? You sure youre not tripping?"
Eat the poo poo
I've been through a (not video game related) company buy-out and it was the most excruciating time in my career. The company taking over didn't care about the staff and employees or what they were doing and treated them like second class workers even years after. Walking away from a buy-out is honestly the best thing you can do and it's no surprise many studios implode shortly after. Really hope Arkane can recover, Dishonored and Prey are some of my favorite games.
At this very moment, 11/18/2023 9pm CET. There is... 36 people in game on steam....
Just started another playthrough of Dishonored, this just makes me sad, hopefully Arkane finds their way again
You should totally bring back the "Life of a Game" series. Things like No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 are examples for you to cover on that show.
You know, there was a Batman show back in the early aughts that the same people behind much of the DCAU really didn't want to make because it was a very stupid premise. It was Batman but in high school. Understandably they weren't thrilled with the idea, but said, "fine but we're doing this our way" and thus Batman Beyond was made.
You can take a bad idea and make it work if you can drum up enough creativity and talent for it. Arkane was lacking in both for Redfall.
i just keep thinking that the fact that botw, bg3, gollum, king kong, redfall and starfield launched in the same year is super wild
Ayo the ad here actually matches what the presenter is saying
Looks fire
Every studio Microsoft buys just turns to shit sadly. Hi-Fi Rush was dope but thats about it. Halo is in such a deplorable state its sad (tho that was always an xbox IP, not poached). They just dont know how to handle their studios
I want a vampire game that is just like the opening of John Carpenter's vampires. A bunch of blue collar dudes efficiently exterminating a vampire den with makeshift parpoons dragging vampire into the sunlight.
It feels like this game is already a decade old.
15:58 - 16:17 Spencer is a true man . Here to serve the community
Harvey Smith also directed Deus Ex 2, which was horrendous. So his track record was always shaky.
Prey is hands down one of the greatest games I've ever played, seeing redfall fail and flounder the way it did hurt me to my soul especially since IMO deathloop was cool but nowhere near on the scale as Prey had been.
And as much of travesty it was to see Prey not be as successful as it deserves... the real tragedy is what has happened to the team that made it.
Isn’t it great that things like films television shows video games any kind of media that has parent company or suits, make decisions on stuff they know nothing about, just dollar signs in the eyes and a desire to ape the successful.
hard to make a Death of a Game for a game that was never Alive to begin with.