Arkane Studios’ Redfall received some new details and gameplay recently, but perhaps the biggest revelation concerned the PS5 version. Speaking to IGN France, director Harvey Smith said a PS5 version was in development for a year. However, once Microsoft acquired Zenimax, there was a “change with a capital C.” Arkane was told, “‘No PlayStation 5. Now we’re gonna do Game Pass, Xbox, and PC.'”
Smith said it turned out to be a good thing due to focusing on fewer consoles and having a large player base on Game Pass. As the dispute between Microsoft and Sony over Call of Duty exclusivity continues, it certainly added more fuel to the fire.
In response, a Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot, “We haven’t pulled any games from PlayStation. In fact, we’ve expanded our footprint of games that we’ve shipped on Sony’s PlayStation since we acquired ZeniMax, and the first two games we shipped after closing were PlayStation 5 exclusives [Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo].
“We did the same thing since our closing of Minecraft as we extended the reach of that franchise. All of the games that were available on PlayStation when we acquired ZeniMax in March 2021 are still available on PlayStation, and we have continued to do content updates on PlayStation and PC. We have always said that future decisions on whether to distribute ZeniMax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis.”
While a PS5 version may have been in the works, whether it was cancelled immediately after ZeniMax’s acquisition is unknown. Furthermore, it’s in keeping with policy that Microsoft stated at the time of acquisition regarding future titles. Such is the case with Redfall, though it doesn’t do the company any favors in the current public eye.
Redfall is out on May 2nd for Xbox Series X/S and PC and launches on day one on Game Pass. Arkane says the looter shooter will be its “most supported game post-launch” with no microtransactions or in-game store. We’ll wait and see if that’s the case in the coming months.
