Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

 

[StereoVsn]

Well, it would be amazing if they were. They are actually very good at the genre as opposed to all the MP BS.

 

[havoc00]

So much for continuing the lore and story of Redfall!

 

[GetInTheRobot]

Yea, redfall was a left over from Bethesdas Fallout 76 era and now that they have more creative freedom I'm sure they're going back to what they are good at.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Good. They should stick to what they're good at.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Arkane can now get back to their best after the abortion that was Redfall.
Also, fuck off Unreal Engine as they clearly have no idea how to use it.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

The problem is like 70%+ of Arkane Austin from prior to Redfall are gone, so it’s not the same studio it was. No matter what genre they make their next game in.

 

[feynoob]

The problem is like 70%+ of Arkane Austin from prior to Redfall are gone, so it’s not the same studio it was. No matter what genre they make their next game in.

They gone overtime, not all of them at once. Plus those are prey.
SP devs are abundent and will be back to make those games, unlike MP games.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

"Arcane never misses"

 

[Ywap]

Redfall 2 without the following:

- Co-op
- Weapon looting
- UE stuttering engine

Could be a fun game. The setting is great imo and the gameplay/enemy AI could probably be tweaked to work really well in a SP game.

 

[Captain Toad]

Yea, redfall was a left over from Bethesdas Fallout 76 era and now that they have more creative freedom I'm sure they're going back to what they are good at.

Who is "they"? Do "they" even still work there?

 

[YeulEmeralda]

We'll see. They obviously moved on from that type of game because of bad sales.

 

[balls of snow]

Ahh yes, back to making what we are actually good at.

 

[ByWatterson]

Crazy ambitious for a studio with two employees.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Who is "they"? Do "they" even still work there?

No. The creative talent that made Dishonored and Prey no longer work there.

 

[Revolutionary]

Had low expectations for Redfall and they failed to even meet those. Arkane Austin is nothing without Raph.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

This thread is going to be bumpin' in 6 years.

 

[sainraja]

Good. Do what they are good at.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Good and don’t use UE4.

 

[Robb]

Good, I’d be very worried if they were to make another multiplayer game. Stick to what you’re good at.

 

[semiconscious]

'then, again, they could not be...'

 

[Bernkastel]

The problem is like 70%+ of Arkane Austin from prior to Redfall are gone, so it’s not the same studio it was. No matter what genre they make their next game in.

Crazy ambitious for a studio with two employees.

Ah yes Jason Schreier's article, with quotes like

The studio’s Austin office employed less than 100 people— sufficient for a relatively small, single-player game like Prey but not enough to compete with multiplayer behemoths like Fortnite and Destiny, which are developed by teams of hundreds.

Within the industry, ZeniMax had a reputation for paying lower than average salaries, and convincing some progressive or moderate video game developers to move to Texas could be difficult due to the state’s conservative social policies.

Its very misleading to lead people to beleive "it only has less than 100 people", when used to be smaller.

Arkane Studios | LinkedIn

Arkane Studios | 134,575 followers on LinkedIn. Arkane® Studios is looking for talented individuals to join our team at our offices in Lyon, France and Austin, Texas | Founded in 1999, Arkane® Studios has grown to become one of the most renowned and critically acclaimed development teams in the...

www.linkedin.com

Currently 281 employees divided among Austin and Lyon.

Last I checked
In 2021

150 people in Arkane are divided among Lyon studio(Dishonored, Deathloop) and Austin Studio(Prey, new upcoming fantasy project).

In 2022

Arkane - ~200

Where are they getting the "70%"?

So, the studio is actually growing, contrary to what the article tries to make you beleive. Development in Prey (2017) started around 2013, thats a long time ago. So ofcourse 70% of people who worked on Prey probably may not be there, but how much liberties is Jason taking to get to this figure? Why does he not talk about the Lyon studio but only the Austin one? Or as feynoob said

They gone overtime, not all of them at once. Plus those are prey.
SP devs are abundent and will be back to make those games, unlike MP games.

 

[havoc00]

Good, I’d be very worried if they were to make another multiplayer game. Stick to what you’re good at.

Redfall is a sleeper hit

 

[PanzerCute]

Very good news. Would love a dungeon RPG à la Arx Fatalis.

 

[The Pleasure]

Redfall is a sleeper hit

Just because you say that doesn't mean it's true. In much the same way the dave Matthews band does not rock.

 

[havoc00]

The vampire lore was amazing was like a direct sequel to vampire in Brooklyn another movie ahead of its time

 

[havoc00]

Just because you say that doesn't mean it's true. In much the same way the dave Matthews band does not rock.

Dave Matthews band was the spark that started the Woodstock 99 fire

 

[Robb]

Redfall is a sleeper hit

You forgot an “s” in front of “hit”

 

[feynoob]

You forgot an “s” in front of “hit”

It could have been a hit, had they hired competent people and not focus on MTX side.

The game has something, but the backbone is shit. This makes it a crap game.

Still baffling they managed to fk up a vampire game.

 

[GymWolf]

Please do something good, i can't deal with a third consecutive underwhelming game.

 

[BbMajor7th]

If they're true to form, it'll be pretty good and well designed, but they'll stubbornly stick to first-person perspective and it'll get overlooked by a huge proportion of the potential audience because someone high-up at Arkane refuses to acknowledge that it's not 2002 anymore. See also: Prey, Dishonored 2 and Deathloop.

 

[Shubh_C63]

Ahh yes, back to making what we are actually good at.

And still doesn't sell.

Dishonored 2 sold poorly I think. I bet it was not colorful enough for people

 

[Krappadizzle]

Hopefully. Redfall sucked ass. I say that as probably one of the bigger fans of Arkane in general that I know. I've loved just about every game they made from Arx Fatalis back on Xbox all the way to Deathloop. One of my favorite studios, period. I was cautiosuly optimistic that Redfall might turn out ok. It didn't.

If you had told me Arkane where gonna make a Co-op shooter, I'd tell you it's gonna be one of the best games of all time. But Redfall never felt like an Arkane game, I'd be very interested in it's development history.

Give me a co-op Dishonored with Corvo and Emily. Please and thank you. If ya'll can't do that confidently, stick to the single player stuff and go back to the Prey/Dishonored/Deathloop Immersive Sim design that made the studio(s) game's so endearing.

I think the reality is that the Immersive Sim genre/design ethos doesn't resonate super well with the general gaming public as a whole because it's easy to blast through Dishonored or Prey on easy/medium with high chaos and not any challenge and just think "that was the game", not realizing there's all these systems in play behind-the-scenes that can dictate drastically different outcomes depending on how you play and what you do. And if you aren't apt to replay a game and see the different outcomes, it'd feel pretty easy to be dismissive of the genre.

 

[Hudo]

Can they please make a spiritual successor to Dark Messiah? This is still the best game these guys have made and there's nothing like it.

 

[BbMajor7th]

I think the reality is that the Immersive Sim genre/design ethos doesn't resonate super well with the general gaming public

Hitman is an immersive sim and has done pretty solidly for years now. Tears of the Kingdom is almost entirely systems-driven and it's been massively popular. I really think it all comes down to the games being first-person and that the modern audience for single-player adventure games prefer third-person.

 

[mdkirby]

With what staff? A huge proportion of the people they had from that era, including the key people have left

I mean I’d love to see them return to their roots, and if they are doing this I wish them the best. But I’ll reserve any excitement until the reviews are in

 

[Laptop1991]

Good, about time, it's what their good at after all

 

[Spaceman292]

It could have been a hit, had they hired competent people and not focus on MTX side.

The game has something, but the backbone is shit. This makes it a crap game.

Still baffling they managed to fk up a vampire game.

Everyone fucks up vampire games

 

[feynoob]

Everyone fucks up vampire games

That should be a a crime.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Good!

 

[Spaceman292]

That should be a a crime.

My favourite game is VTMB and it's extremely fucked up

 

[brian0057]

I guess we're now getting the Deus Ex ripoff.
They already gave us the Thief and System Shock ones.

 

[Warablo]

Now they can focus on games that are good instead of pushing out games like Deathloop and Redfall chasing maximum profit.

 

[Lunarorbit]

Dave Matthews band was the spark that started the Woodstock 99 fire

No. That was the red hot chili peppers after the audience was literally given 10,000 candles for a vigil in honor of Columbine victims.

 

[Wildebeest]

If Lyon wants Shadowrun, then give Austin Battletech and let them fight to the death. The one with the highest metacritic wins. You could easily make a Deus Ex type game in the Battletech universe.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Hopefully. Redfall sucked ass. I say that as probably one of the bigger fans of Arkane in general that I know. I've loved just about every game they made from Arx Fatalis back on Xbox all the way to Deathloop. One of my favorite studios, period. I was cautiosuly optimistic that Redfall might turn out ok. It didn't.

If you had told me Arkane where gonna make a Co-op shooter, I'd tell you it's gonna be one of the best games of all time. But Redfall never felt like an Arkane game, I'd be very interested in it's development history.

Give me a co-op Dishonored with Corvo and Emily. Please and thank you. If ya'll can't do that confidently, stick to the single player stuff and go back to the Prey/Dishonored/Deathloop Immersive Sim design that made the studio(s) game's so endearing.

I think the reality is that the Immersive Sim genre/design ethos doesn't resonate super well with the general gaming public as a whole because it's easy to blast through Dishonored or Prey on easy/medium with high chaos and not any challenge and just think "that was the game", not realizing there's all these systems in play behind-the-scenes that can dictate drastically different outcomes depending on how you play and what you do. And if you aren't apt to replay a game and see the different outcomes, it'd feel pretty easy to be dismissive of the genre.

This.
100% agreed.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

They gone overtime, not all of them at once. Plus those are prey.
SP devs are abundent and will be back to make those games, unlike MP games.

Every company has a certain amount of turnover. The issue here specifically is that most of the company exited, particularly during
the development of Redfall, because it was going so badly. So Arkane Austin lost most of their best people, aka what made their earlier games so unique and special. That’s the issue. It’s not typical at all for that to happen, which is what made the story about the studio newsworthy, as opposed to just typical turnover at a studio.

 

[Chuck Berry]

All the best people from Arkane are long gone as evidenced by GOTY Redfall

So I’m definitely good on that

Everyone should just go play Weird West.

 

[StereoVsn]

No. The creative talent that made Dishonored and Prey no longer work there.

Well, we can only hope for the best. It's clear after last couple of games that any sort of MP is not their speciality.

Hopefully they can punch out a good SP immersive sim. And not just "good for GamePass".

 

[Krappadizzle]

Hitman is an immersive sim and has done pretty solidly for years now. Tears of the Kingdom is almost entirely systems-driven and it's been massively popular. I really think it all comes down to the games being first-person and that the modern audience for single-player adventure games prefer third-person.

Hitman is kind of an outlier I'd say, definitely not the norm for the genre, and even then, I think it being made the way it was and supported for quite a while helped at least keep that franchise alive. And I do agree with what you say about Tears of the Kingdom, easily one of the best games I've ever played. I'd argue that Nintendo keeping the difficulty at a standard across the board definitiely tailors the experience to really enhance the immersive sim design elements incorporated into Totk. I hope people that have been enjoying TotK give games like Dishonored or Prey or Weird West a good honest attempt and see if they surprise themselves..