Phil Spencer ‘disappointed’ in negative reaction to Redfall

‘I’m gonna take full responsibility’

Xbox Head of Gaming Phil Spencer has expressed his disappointment at the player reception to Arkane’s much-maligned vampire hunter Redfall, which launched just two days ago to overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and players.

“I’m disappointed, I’m upset with myself,” said Spencer this morning, speaking on the kinda Funny Games show. “There’s nothing more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community.”

“The critical response was not what we wanted,” Spencer continued, adding “We’re gonna continue to work on the game. We’ve shown a commitment to games like Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, to continue to go and build games. But I also know these games are $70, and I’m gonna take full responsibility for launching a game that needs to be great.”

“We do mock reviews for every game that we launch, and this is double digits lower than where we thought we would be with this game. That’s one of the disappointing things: We would never strive to launch a game that we thought was going to review in the low 60s – it’s not part of our goals.”

Phil Spencer gets honest about Redfall: pic.twitter.com/JUoqTrlLvU

— Kinda Funny (@KindaFunnyVids) May 4, 2023

Redfall, which is one of the few Xbox/PC exclusive titles launching this year, initially turned some heads with its interesting worldbuilding and vibrant, uniquely skilled heroes and villains, but many critics lambasted the title as feeling rushed and massively underwhelming, while some players have noted all manner of technical issues and bugs. While some reviewers have been disappointed with the release, others have been downright brutal of Redfall’s overall release state.

The game was not only delayed from its initial release date for further polishing, but alarms were raised when Arkane announced that the co-op shooter would launch with “Quality Mode” only, locking the title to 30 FPS, which is an oddity in the ninth generation of video gaming, (A Performance Mode will arrive at a later date). Hopefully, future patches and updates can improve Redfall‘s standing with the community, but this is a very difficult age for video games — one where first impressions and the all-important launch month define a title’s future, and Arkane’s latest already has one foot in the grave.

Redfall is available now on Xbox, PC, and Xbox Game Pass.