Before Concord, there was Redfall. Two games that you could argue were similarly fated from the beginning, though at least in the case of Redfall, it got to stick around for longer than two weeks. Both were major flops for their respective first-party publishers, both games got their respective studios shut down, and both games walked the same line of 'fine and forgettable.'
That's not to say the loss of Arkane Austin and Firewalk Studios is on equal footing. It was far more devastating to see Arkane Austin go, as that was another case of a studio with a talented team that was good at making single-player games being forced to change the makeup of their team and try something entirely new. All while still trying to make it an 'Arkane Austin' game, whatever that was supposed to mean in the form of a kind of game Arkane Austin had never made before.
If Arkane Austin had stuck around, the video game industry would be a better place, and for that to have happened, Redfall needed to survive, and potentially, even thrive. According to the game's director, Harvey Smith, there might've been a path to that.
While speaking on the My Perfect Console podcast (via Eurogamer), Smith claimed that if Redfall's final update, which was update 1.4, was the version that the studio actually launched with in 2023, then Arkane Austion's fate might've "been a different story."
"It was a shock," Smith began on the decision to close the studio. "It was not a decision I agreed with. I did believe very much in the future of the studio, we were working on something super cool." Smith goes on to describe the 1.4 update as a "huge upgrade to the game," and said, "If we had launched with that and then built from there it might have been a different story." According to Smith, the 1.4 update was as close as the studio was able to get to their full vision for the game.
Beyond saving Redfall, if Arkane Austin had gotten the chance to stick around, we might've even gotten a Blade Runner game from them, according to Smith. "We were working for a while on a Blade Runner game, which was super exciting to me. What we could have done with Blade Runner..."
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
