Redfall’s failure spells trouble for Xbox and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League: Weekly Roundup
Redfall, Arkane and Bethesda’s newest looter-shooter (and rare Xbox exclusive), has finally released, and critics aren’t pleased. Citing middling gameplay, performance issues (big game studios really don’t learn, huh?) and lackluster design choices, major gaming publications have hit the vampire-killing shooter with a chilling 62 on Metacritic–well below the desired 80+. And that bites for more than a few parties.
This won’t hurt Arkane in the long run. With a stellar portfolio like Dishonored, Deathloop, and Prey, and a solid reputation as gaming’s rising star, they won’t catch the flack here. And Bethesda is a behemoth of a publisher who’s released their fair share of duds; they’d have to release a dozen bad games for folks to start sweating. No, the real victim of Arkane’s misstep is Xbox.
Amid the messy legal battles over Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of Xbox’s only real arguments was that they didn’t really need Activision Blizzard’s IPs to succeed. Downplaying the importance of the $69 billion merger was the constant refrain from Phil Spencer and Microsoft Legal. With Redfall’s failure, however, that argument is looking flimsier and flimsier. Xbox doesn’t have another exclusive on the books until September’s Starfield (Skyrim meets No Man’s Sky), while Sony is sitting pretty with June’s Final Fantasy XVI as a timed exclusive and Tears of the Kingdom gets set to obliterate all of May. As Xbox legal undersells their purchase of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Tony Hawk, Redfall fails in critical and commercial regards and their competition gears up to release the biggest games of the year. No matter how much deflecting Xbox pulls, it’s become painfully clear. Xbox DOES need Activision Blizzard. Badly. Because left to their own devices, as they have been for the past few years? They haven’t been hitting peak performance.
The other victim of Redfall’s failing isn’t even released yet. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is Rocksteady’s continuation of the Arkham-verse and one of the most hotly anticipated games of 2023. However, it’s taken quite a few hits in the public opinion as of late. Screenshots of the game’s UI leaked online, revealing a looter-shooter not unlike Destiny 2, Anthem, or in a more cruel comparison, Crystal Dynamic’s dismal Marvel’s Avengers. In fact, this sparked serious concern that Suicide Squad would indeed follow the rank and file of Avengers, turning a fascinating multiplayer shooter into a lackluster, lootbox filled Destiny clone. These leaks, combined with harsh critical turns from sites like IGN and GameRant led to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s delay out of 2023.
This brings us to Redfall. Another nail in the coffin for looter-shooters isn’t exactly good news for Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad. If the game had succeeded on a larger scale, the praise might’ve mollified some of the harsher critics, leading to a hopeful “maybe this time it’ll work?” But with Redfall’s complete bombing, things are looking dire for both Xbox and Rocksteady. Let’s hope Starfield is another masterful open-world RPG in the vein of Elden Ring, and that Suicide Squad really does prove the Redfall and Avengers fans wrong.
