The blockbuster game Redfall was also supposed to come to PS5, but Microsoft banned it. Sony could tip a billion-dollar deal and win a dispute.
Hamburg – Microsoft and Sony have been arguing about the soul of the video game world for over a year – it’s about almost 70 billion and the monopoly position. Ironically, with the new vampire horror Redfall, which just does not appear for PS5, Xbox could have done its competitor a huge favor. Because Microsoft actually didn’t want to “take anything away” from gamers and is now taking away a PlayStation game after all. Sony could make a precedent out of it that influences the antitrust authorities investigating worldwide.
| title | Redfall |
| Release | 2. May 2023 |
| developer | Arkane Studios Austin |
| Publisher | Bethesda Softworks |
| platform | Xbox Series, Microsoft Windows |
| Genre | First-Person-Shooter |
Xbox promises: don’t want to “take anything away” from gamers – and secretly kills Redfall for PS5
Game does not come (for everyone): The new video game Redfall will be released in May 2023 – the horror spectacle comes from the well-known studio Arkane. The developers have contributed to Bioshock 2 and have recently developed acclaimed titles such as Deathloop or Dishonerd. Those who don’t enjoy the new Redfall are all players on PlayStation.
But is the non-appearance a surprise? Yes and no. Because Redfall was planned for PS5 and was also developed for Sony’s console, just like previous Arkane titles. But then competitor Microsoft came along, waved a lot of money and bought Bethesda – the mother of Studio Arkane, so to speak. The fact that Microsoft canceled Redfall in the middle of development was a secret for a long time until the director (accidentally?) leaked it. And so Sony could have done a huge favor.
Boss talks about Microsoft’s announcement: Harvey Smith, Arkane’s head of Redfall, incidentally revealed in an interview on March 22 that after the Microsoft acquisition, any plans for a release on Sony’s consoles were scrapped. Instead, the focus was entirely on in-house products. The Xbox boss had completely different words a year ago.
We were bought by Microsoft and that was a big change. They said “No PlayStation 5. We’re doing it for Game Pass, Xbox and PC”.
Harvey Smith went on to reveal in the interview that he’s not crying over the PlayStation release, it’s “a good decision“. Because that way the studio saves a lot of development time, without the PS5 it’s “one less platform to worry about“.
Redfall isn’t coming to PlayStation, so what? But by doing so, Microsoft is jeopardizing its $69 billion deal
Surely Microsoft didn’t want to “take anything away”? Sony and Microsoft have been at odds for a year over nothing less than the soul of the video game world. The dispute is tied to the series “Call of Duty”, the successful shooter franchise at all. Microsoft’s $7.7 billion purchase of Bethesda (Arcane’s boss) pales in comparison to its most recent purchase, almost $70 billion for Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard with Call of Duty.
To reassure gamers worldwide – and especially competitor Sony – Xbox boss at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, swaggered: “This deal was not made to take games away from another player base. (…) We want more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to play games”.
Sony done a favor: Sony is currently pulling out all the legal levers to prove that Microsoft is taking on too dominant a monopoly position in the gaming market should the mega deal go through. The antitrust authorities in several countries are investigating whether the purchase of Activision Blizzard is legal.
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Phil Spencer’s noble words have aged badly with the news of Redfall’s non-development for PlayStation. As an example, Sony could point out that such an action would also be pushed by Microsoft in the future and that the Xbox would have an unfair monopoly – this should then also influence the investigating antitrust authorities.
Even if Microsoft’s Redfall isn’t going to be a system seller must-have mega-success, that much should be clear, the next really big game from Activision Blizzard is already in the starting blocks: Diablo 4 and it’s going down really well. Diablo 4 is guaranteed to come for PS5 (and PC as well as Xbox) – but what will that look like in a few years?