Interest in Vampire-Hunting Co-Op Shooter Redfall Declines
Interest in vampire-hunting co-op shooter Redfall has dwindled to the extent that the game’s concurrent Steam player count is now regularly dropping to single digits. At times, the number of players has been so low that there aren’t even enough people to fill a single full four-player co-op team.
What’s more, it looks as though Redfall has hit a single-player count at some point every day since September 22 – that’s more than two weeks (via VGC). In fact, at time of writing, the game has only nine players according to SteamDB. It’s worth noting, however, that, although these figures paint a grim picture, they do not account for players on Xbox Game Pass or those on Xbox Series X|S consoles.
Arkane Austin’s latest offering was poorly received by fans and critics. Back in May, we called it “one of the worst games of the year”, but we weren’t alone in our disappointment. Even Xbox head Phil Spencer made it clear that he was disappointed by Redfall, too. Allegedly, even Redfall’s developers themselves were secretly hoping that Microsoft would cancel it.
Despite all of this, Bethesda Softworks’ head of publishing Pete Hines has made a commitment not to abandon Redfall, stating that “we’re going to get it to be a good game […] We are always in a process of learning, so that’s not new for us. We don’t like failing to meet our players’ expectations.”
Fallout 76, also published by Bethesda, had a similarly rocky launch before eventually stabilizing and developing its own distinctive identity and appeal. Hines was keen to draw a comparison between post-apocalyptic multiplayer RPG Fallout 76 and Redfall, acknowledging that the former’s release was “not flawless” and that “Redfall is no different for us.”
That said, though Fallout 76 was rife with issues at launch, even at its lowest the game still boasted thousands of players at any given moment while Redfall, by comparison, seems to have become a ghost town.
Redfall may have been a flop, but our list of the best co-op games is full of brilliant titles, as is our guide to the best horror games.