10 Recent Video Games Sent Out To Die
10. Redfall
Though it seems like a lifetime ago now, Redfall set the standard for bad games and botched launches in 2023 when it released last May.
Pre-release, it felt like everyone except Microsoft knew that asking a developer best known for its singleplayer immersive sims to create an open-world multiplayer live-service shooter would lead to dodgy results, and as such players weren't exactly convinced by Redfall's early trailers. Though the art direction and world building looked as top-tier as you'd expect from an Arkane release, everything else looked, well, a little ropey.
Despite initially being pitched as a major Xbox exclusive for 2023, Redfall was ultimately dumped onto store shelves and Game Pass with little fanfare, but that didn't stop it receiving a huge wave of post-launch press for being a buggy, empty, half-baked experience.
Full of performance issues and quest-breaking bugs, even if the game worked as intended it wouldn't have been received well, as a lack of interesting missions and enemy encounters made for an experience that didn't play to the developer's strengths.
Explanations for the game's state came shortly after launch from a damning report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (via VGC), whose sources within the studio claimed that they hoped Microsoft would cancel Redfall rather than release it, and that the pivot to multiplayer caused a mass exodus of talent.
Whatever happened, don't expect to see a Redfall 2 anytime soon.