Redfall co-director Harvey Smith thinks Arkane ’never should have been working on a games-as-a-service game'
Harvey Smith, former creative director at Arkane Austin and now CEO of newly founded Black Pony Immersive, has stated that Arkane Studios “never should have been working on a games-as-a-service game,” directly referencing the critical and commercial failure of Redfall.
Redfall, a vampire-themed open-world multiplayer shooter, represented a significant departure from Arkane’s core expertise in immersive simulation design. The game was poorly received upon launch, marking a rare failure for the otherwise accomplished studio.
The consequences proved severe. Approximately one year after Redfall’s unsuccessful release, Microsoft shut down Arkane Austin entirely, resulting in nearly 100 job losses. Smith has since left to establish Black Pony Immersive.
Smith’s candid assessment suggests a fundamental strategic misalignment—assigning a studio specialized in immersive sim design to develop a live-service multiplayer game may have been a core misstep. The mismatch between Arkane’s established strengths and the demands of the games-as-a-service model appears to have contributed significantly to both Redfall’s failure and the studio’s closure, highlighting ongoing industry challenges regarding resource allocation and strategic planning.