Xbox CEO Accepts that Redfall’s Release was Indeed a “Disappointment”

Xbox CEO, Phil Spencer recently appeared on the Kinda Funny Xcast interview to discuss the release of Redfall. Unfortunately, we all saw how the release went, and as the game was met with underwhelming response from the fans, and Spencer acknowledged this by expressing his disappointment over the release.

He stated that nothing is more difficult for him than disappointing the Xbox community, as we previously also saw how Microsoft wasn’t exactly on board with the idea of developing Redfall.

Spencer seemed genuinely upset over the current state of Redfall’s reception, stating that he was revisiting processes throughout the lifecycle of Redfall’s development, including the pre-release ball drop on not being able to achieve 60FPS on Xbox consoles at launch.

In addition to this, he also acknowledged that the game did not get the critical response they were looking for and that they need to learn how to get better at quality and execution.

Despite the criticism, Spencer stood by Xbox’s policy of not going in too deep, and micro-managing the creativity of its studios. He indicated that he believes in giving creative space to the studios to make the games they want to make, even if it leads to underperforming results.

He cited Tango Gameworks as an example, known for survival horror games, being allowed creative space to make the critically acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush, and we all are seeing how that turned out to be.

When asked about the potential to delay Redfall to polish the game further, Spencer stated that Xbox had their reasons for not doing this, and that delaying the game would not have helped with the specific creative vision they had for the game. He acknowledged that there are quality issues with Redfall that they are assessing, but the game had a specific target to meet a creative vision.

He stands by their decision to put the game out in its current state, as they believe that at some point, they have to have a creative vision and put the game out, and that their reviewers and players will tell them what they think.

Spencer also clarified that Xbox did mock reviews for every game that they launch, and that Redfall’s Metacritic scores were double digits lower than where they thought they would be for the game. He stated that they would never strive to launch a game that they thought was going to review in the low 60s, and that this was not part of their goals.

Spencer took full responsibility for the underwhelming results and has assured that the game will indeed be polished further. While this is all we know for now, rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.