Xbox's Phil Spencer: 'I apologise' for Redfall
The world finally has Redfall, and hoo boy is it unhappy with it.
The game has been considered a flop by critics and fans alike, and even though some cool vampire designs help, they don't offset the broken assets, T-posing NPCs, poor gameplay and wonky AI. Fans are upset, and it seems that Xbox is too.
And now, finally we have some word from the inside of Xbox about how the team are feeling about the title's disappointing launch.
Xbox boss - "I'm disappointed" in Redfall launch
In a new interview with Kinda Funny Games, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has finally broken the company's silence on the critical and fan response to Redfall, claiming that he is disappointed by the results that reviews and gameplay have found.
After being asked about the "tough release week coming out to low reviews and a lot of disappointment from many fans," Spencer was fairly candid with his response.
"There's nothing that's more difficult for me than disappointing the Xbox community," added Spencer. "I've been a part of it for a long time, I obviously work on Xbox, head of the business, have a lot of friends, get a lot of feedback."
Expanding on what it feels like to see Redfall stumble, he added. "And just to kinda watch the community lose confidence, be disappointed - I'm disappointed, I'm upset with myself...
"I think back to the announcement of 60 frames per second, and that we weren't shipping [at] 60 frames per second, that was kind of court punch in the chin, rightfully, a couple of weeks ago. [...] one thing I won't do is push against the creative aspirations of our teams."
Phil Spencer - "I apologise"
Coming after Microsoft has seemingly distanced itself from Redfall, Spencer continued, "A lot of people will say 'hey, you've got teams, teams know how to do one kind of game, force them to go do the one kind of game that they have a proven track record for.' I'm not a believer in that."
"Maybe that means I'll underdeliver for some of our fans out there, but when a team like Rare wants to do Sea of Thieves, when Obsidian wants to do Grounded, when Tango want to go and do Hi-fi [Rush] when people probably thought that they were going to do The Evil Within 3... I wanna give the teams the creative platform to go and push their ability, and push their aspirations.
"But I also need to have a great selection of games that continue to come, and surprise and delight our fans. We underdelivered on that, and I apologise."
It's a shame that big Phil has had to come forward with a full apology, but fans are so distressed that frankly, it's all he could do. Redfall has squandered expectations, and we're at least glad to see Xbox accept that.
