There is a new craze about developers forcing players to be always online to play games even in solo mode. Arkane, the developer of the single-player horror shooter, Redfall, disclosed that players will need to stay connected to play the solo mode. However, gamers are not having it.
An official FAQ for Redfall published in February explained that players without the Xbox Gold subscription can still play the game in solo mode but will need to be online.
One of the FAQs was “Will playing Redfall require an online connection for single-player as well as co-op?” and the answer was “A persistent online connection is required for single-player and co-op.”
In a not-so-surprising twist, Arkane has revealed that it was “looking into” eliminating the requirement for solo players to stay connected online. In an interview with Eurogamer, Harvey Smith, the game director said the team was searching for a fix to eliminate the requirement.
ALSO READ: How To Create Snake Game With GPT-4 In Minutes
“There are two ways developers could react to that,” Smith said, referring to the request by players to play offline. “They could say oh, my God, you’re always online. If you get on your Steam, and it’s not online, you freak out. If you get on your Xbox, and you can’t get the latest patch, or see what your friends are doing, you freak out. You want to be always online.”
However, Smith adds that “there are people who live where there are outages or their broadband is shitty, or they’re competing with their family members. So, I think it is a legitimate critique. We do take it with a lot of empathy. We listen and we have already started work to address this in the future.”
Arkane’s awkward explanation for making Redfall always online
According to Smith, removing the always online feature for Redfall solo will require a lot of work including encrypting the save games as well as tweaks to the UI. On this premise, he refused to make promises and just stopped short at “we are looking into and working actively towards fixing that in the future.”
However, gamers are curious to know why the feature was included in the first place. Reacting to that, Smith claimed the reason was to help the developer analyze Redfall players’ behaviors and make changes to the game accordingly.
“It allows us to do some accessibility stuff,” Smith said. “It allows us for telemetry. If everybody’s falling off ladders and dying, holy shit, that shows up. So, we can go and tweak the ladder code. There are reasons we set out to do that that are not insidious.”
However, that is precisely what that decision feels like, insidious. The last thing gamers want is to pay to be monitored. We asked a couple of gamers and not a single one of them was comfortable with being online while playing Redfall solo—or any other game at that. Did the explanation satiate you? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
Arkane cancels Redfall for PS5
Arkane recently revealed that Redfall was in development for PS5 but was canceled. One of Arkane Austin’s lead developers was on a French media and only briefly explained why Redfall will not be coming to PS5. Interestingly, many people were not surprised.
Apparently, the reason why Redfall will not get a PS5 version dates back to 2021 when Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, the parent company of Arkane and Bethesda. Consequently, they became a subsidiary of Xbox Game Studios.
Smith explained that because of this change, there were no PS5 port projects after Deathloop. He also disclosed that the Arkane Austin team was instructed to focus more on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox consoles, and PC.
Redfall will be available on Xbox Game Pass on 2 May 2023 release day. Obviously, developers are beginning to focus on their ecosystem. What is uncertain is whether future expansions of older titles will be affected by the policy.
Although Redfall will not be available on PS5, it is expected to feature support for NVIDIA DLSS 3 on PC with supported NVIDIA graphics cards. There has been lots of enthusiasm around Redfall. What is yet to be seen is if the enthusiasm will be carried on to the release day and lead to thousands of synchronous players.
A peek into Redfall’s open world
The open world of Redfall used to be sunny, pleasant, and even quaint until things took a turn for the worse after being overrun by bloodthirsty vampires. The bloodlust creatures have thrown the town into darkness by eclipsing the sun. Redfall has lost its shine and has become a bloodbath.
ALSO READ: 4 New Games Comes To Nintendo Switch Online For NES, SNES, And Game Boy
Apart from eclipsing the sun, the vampires pushed back the sea from the land making it almost impossible to get off the island. As chaos reigned over the town, a group of survivors decided to fight back against the vampire threat.
Your role is simple; protect the remaining survivors and take back the island one neighborhood at a time. Redfall features a spooky and stunning open world wrapped in evocative storytelling. Your quest will square you off against mercenaries, cultists, and vampires through trippy psychic spaces. If you are ready to bite back against the invading terror, you are invited to hop on.
Remember to share and bookmark this website to stay up to date on all the hottest news in the gaming industry.
