Bethesda’s Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive.
04.09.2023 - 16:47 / gameranx.com / Pete Hines / Arkane Studios / Will
There’s been a bad trend in video games over the last several years that gamers are truly tired of. We’re speaking of developers launching titles that aren’t ready for release and then expecting gamers to play them, buy them, or stay with them despite their “buggy states.” An excellent example of this is Redfall. The game by Arkane Studios, who had an excellent track record before this title, was an unmitigated disaster due to how buggy and boring the game was at launch. The title was dead on arrival, and it’s stayed that way ever since.
However, if you were to ask Xbox’s Pete Hines, he has a more “sunny disposition” about the title. In an interview with GameIndustry.biz, he revealed that he believes the game will be “good eventually” simply because it’ll be on Xbox Game Pass “forever.” As a result, Arkane will be able to improve the title over time, and gamers will still play it:
“Okay, we didn’t get the start we wanted, but it’s still a fun game… and we’re going to keep working on it. We’re going to do 60fps. We’re going to get it to be a good game because we know, as a first-party studio, Game Pass lives forever. There will be people ten years from now who are going to join Game Pass, and Redfall will be there.”
There’s plenty to break down there, including the “sunny outlook” that Pete Hines has for the title. Just so you know, as noted by ComicBook.com, the game barely has any players on Steam, and that report was from a few days ago! Plus, just because a game is on Xbox Game Pass doesn’t mean people will drop everything and play it. That goes double when you consider the numerous titles on the service.
Another thing to think about is that Pete Hines is saying it’s a “fun game,” but many gamers would disagree with that. Many called the game “boring,” “repetitive,” and “not a challenge.” They hated the live service model, and that speaks to even deeper troubles with the title. Reports were going around that Xbox gave no insight into the game despite buying Bethesda and Arkane in a huge deal. Apparently, the dev team wanted Xbox to come in and cancel the game, but they simply “trusted Arkane to make it work,” and that backfired because the team’s heart wasn’t into it.
Only time will tell if Pete Hines was right or not.
Bethesda’s Todd Howard has discussed the benefits of Starfield being an Xbox console exclusive.
«There will be people ten years from now who are going to join Game Pass, and Redfall will be there.»
While Bethesda may have hit a slam dunk with Starfield, the same can hardly be said about Arkane Studios’ Redfall. Having launched just a few months prior to Starfield, Redfall was met with a wall of well-warranted critique. Yet, according to Bethesda’s head of publishing, the book hasn’t yet closed on Redfall.
Bethesda's head of publishing, Pete Hines, has said that game bugs are inevitable and they ultimately allow the studio to lean into player freedom.
Bethesda’s head of publishing, Pete Hines, has affirmed that Arkane’s co-op FPS Redfall won’t be abandoned, and that “we're going to get it to be a good game”.
Bethesda‘s head of publishing Pete Hines says the company will make Redfall “a good game”, despite an underwhelming reception at launch.
Bethesda Game Studios’ titles have always had a reputation for being technically rough, buggy games, and though Starfield is very clearly the most polished a BGS game has been at launch in a long, long time, it still has its fair share of technical hiccups.
Pete Hines, publishing head at Bethesda Softworks, has stated that the company has no plans to give up on Redfall, and that the game will become good down the line with updates bringing in improvements. The company hopes to raise the quality of the game to the same extent as it has other titles like The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76.
Bethesda Softworks publishing head Pete Hines has reassured players that Arkane isn't giving up on Redfall, despite its lukewarm reception on launch earlier this year. In fact, he's confident it will be a good game people want to play on Game Pass ten years from now.
Never has a Bethesda game been released without at least a few bugs. We all know how it goes… we either cease to play Skyrim because our AI companions won’t stop running into traps, or we embrace the wonderful weirdness and turn it into streaming content. And it’s not just us players who feel the need to cut Bethesda games some slack for their shortcomings.
Bethesda's Senior VP of Global Marketing and Communications, Pete Hines, wants people to skip sleep and stay up in order to play Starfield.
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