Xbox CEO Phil Spencer: Redfall’s poor reception was unexpected

Xbox CEO Phil Spencer says Redfall’s poor reception among players and media was “unexpected.” Based on internal tests and reviews, the company expected a better score. Spencer promises to keep working on Redfall.

Redfall was released earlier this week and received mainly negative reactions. Partly because of bugs and the lack of a promised 60fps mode on console, but also because the game would be boring and repetitive. In an interview with YouTube channel Kinda Funny Games, Xbox Game Studios CEO Phil Spencer said these negative reactions were “unexpected.” The Xbox Series for example, a Metacritic score of 62while Spencer expected “at least ten points” higher.

In the conversation, Spencer also addresses critics who say the game should have been postponed. The Xbox CEO says he postpones games if necessary, for example because there are many bugs or because there is not enough time to realize ‘the creative vision’ of a studio. During the conversation, Spencer wonders out loud whether the original vision of Redfall was different enough from other games and whether this vision has been realized. “I think it might be a little bit simplistic to say, ‘hey, if you had postponed the game for three months, it might have been better.’

Spencer also says he will continue to support the developer, Arkane Austin. “But this is a game where the studio failed to meet its own internal goals.” He also says that the studio will continue to work on the game. First the 60fps mode should come to consoles, but after that ‘we will continue to work on the game’. Spencer refers to, among other things, Sea of ​​Thieves, a game that still receives updates five years after its introduction.

The Xbox CEO also responds to people who say that Arkane Austin should not have started the game in the first place. Arkane Austin previously worked on the single-player games Prey and Dishonored, while Redfall is a co-op multiplayer game that contains more shooter elements than the previous Arkane games. “I’m not going to inhibit the creative ambitions of our teams,” says Spencer. “I’m not in favor of forcing studios to make one type of game. Maybe this means I won’t meet all expectations for some fans, but I also need to support my teams as they push their creative boundaries.”