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| A screengrab from Redfall on PC |
In a raw and reflective new interview, Harvey Smith, the visionary co-creator of Dishonored and longtime studio director of Arkane Austin, has spoken publicly for the first time about the profound “shock” of Microsoft’s decision to shutter the studio in May 2024. The closure followed the disappointing launch of the studio's vampiric co-op FPS, Redfall.
Speaking with host Simon Parkin on the latest episode of the My Perfect Console podcast, Smith looked back on the team's storied history—from crafting the iconic 2012 immersive sim Dishonored to the critically adored but often overlooked 2017 masterpiece, Prey. The conversation then turned to the painful end of an era.
Smith revealed he received the fateful call the night before the public announcement, a call that left him awake until morning, grappling with the news and thinking especially of the younger developers on his team.
“It was a shock, because we had done really good work, and this is a group of people in some cases, who had worked together for one project and in other cases, like me and Ricardo Bare (creative lead behind Prey: Mooncrash), had worked together since the late nineties,” Smith explained.
He directly shouldered the blame for Redfall’s commercial failure, describing it as a live-service experiment that stumbled amidst the complexities of pandemic-era development. His deepest concern, however, was for his team.
“Who I really felt for were the new people, like, this was their first project, or they’d only been in the industry for a little while… Mostly it was a shock, and it was trying to help, especially the people for whom this was just a mind-blowing experience.”
Despite the devastating setback, Smith described how the team committed to one final act of professionalism: delivering the massive Redfall 1.4 patch. He called the effort “a huge full-court press inside the company.” The update introduced a long-requested offline mode, overhauled core systems, and refined the game to better align with Arkane’s original vision.
Smith expressed gratitude that Microsoft allowed them to see this final update through, stating, “Microsoft allowed us to finish 1.4 with a lot of campaigning going for it. And as a result, the team’s work wasn’t wasted, and the game that sits up there today is much better than the one that we released at launch.”
Yet, his belief in the studio’s potential never wavered. “It was not a decision I agreed with. I did believe very much in the studio's future. We were working on something very cool,” Smith revealed.
In a poignant disclosure that will surely ache for fans of immersive sims and the cyberpunk genre, Smith confirmed the studio was deep into a dream project. “We were working on a Blade Runner game, which was super exciting to me. What we could have done with Blade Runner…”
The loss of that project underscores the true cost of the studio’s closure, marking not just the end of Redfall’s journey, but the silencing of a unique creative voice poised to tackle one of gaming’s most revered universes.
For players curious to experience the final, polished version of Arkane Austin's last game, Redfall is available on Amazon.
This article is based on an interview from the “My Perfect Console” podcast. All quotes have been edited for clarity.