Redfall on Xbox Series X|S Will Be 30 FPS at Launch

By Tim Bowman, April 13, 2023

The performance for one of Xbox’s biggest exclusives this year is limited on release day.

Redfall will only launch with a “Quality mode” that locks the title’s performance to 30 frames-per-second during gameplay for both versions of the game on Xbox Series X and Series S. The game will be updated after release with a “Performance mode” that increases it to 60 FPS, although a date for that patch wasn’t confirmed. In Quality mode Redfall will be playable in up to 4K on Xbox Series X and 1440p on Series S. The announcement was made Wednesday on the game’s official Twitter.

The game is releasing on May 2 and is one of Xbox’s biggest first-party exclusives of the year. Redfall is also the first game from Microsoft to release exclusively on Xbox’s next generation Series consoles. It’s being published by Bethesda Softworks under Microsoft, who acquired the company as part of ZeniMax Media in March 2021. Redfall will launch for the Xbox Series X|S and PC on Steam and Windows for $69.99, with the game available to Xbox Game Pass subscribers day-one on consoles and PC. The PC version won’t have this performance lock at launch.

The game features open world, first-person shooter gameplay with four different hero survivors fighting against vampires and other humans in the fictional town of Redfall, Massachusetts. Redfall can be played in co-op with up to four players or in single-player mode.

Redfall is being developed by Arkane Austin. The studio also co-developed the Dishonored franchise (2012-2017) with Arkane Lyon and is fully responsible for making Prey (2017). The Texas-based studio opened in 2006 as a branch under Arkane Studios.

The game had been delayed for almost a year, with an original release date set for summer 2022. Bethesda announced in May 2022 that Redfall’s release would be extended to the first part of 2023. In January the release date for May 2 was announced during an Xbox Developer Direct stream. Redfall now has some tough competition in its release window, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (April 28) and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (May 12) launching around the same time. Redfall had several issues during its development like dealing with the Covid pandemic and power outages in Texas.

The game needs to always be online even when played in single-player mode, which caused backlash among many players. Arkane Austin said it’s now looking into the possibility of removing that requirement. The consistent Internet connection is needed for the studio to learn how people are playing the game so it can make any adjustments or improvements, according to Arkane Austin’s studio lead and Redfall’s director Harvey Smith. The PC version includes Denuvo, an anti-piracy software that is unpopular with many players and potentially causes performances issues with some games.

Co-op story progression in Redfall is also only tied to the online host, meaning other players won’t keep any campaign advancements they get through as a team. Character progression like experience and loot from co-op play will carry over to an individual’s own save file though. The single-player mode also doesn’t include an AI companion for the three other heroes and is strictly a one-player/character experience.

Redfall was originally supposed to also be on PlayStation 5 but that version was cancelled once Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, according to Smith. Microsoft denied that it stopped the game from coming to Sony’s console. There’s currently no PS5 version of Redfall in development now.

The game was first revealed in June 2021 during Microsoft’s showcase at E3 and has been in development since at least 2017.

Watch Redfall gameplay footage: