Redfall Hero Pass cancelled following Arkane Austin closure
Credit offered instead.
In the wake of devastating closures at Bethesda, Arkane Austin has confirmed the Hero Pass DLC for Redfall will no longer be released.
Instead, players who purchased the pass as part of the £100 Bite Back Edition or £30 upgrade will receive credit to the same value as the pass.
As Eurogamer reported last week, it's been a year since Redfall's launch and its promised Hero Pass was yet to be released. Now, players are being directed to sign up to receive credit, with details currently being finalised.
The Hero Pass would have added two new heroes to the four original protagonists. The last we heard was the game's third update last November: "We're continuing development of The Hero Pass and we're excited to share more about Redfall's new heroes and other updates later next year," it read.
"Today it was announced that Arkane Austin will close and development will not continue on Redfall," reads a statement on the official Redfall account.
"To everyone that has supported the work from our Austin studio over the years, thank you. Thank you for spending time in our worlds and making them your own."
Arkane Austin is one of three Bethesda studios closing, along with Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks and Doom studio Alpha Dog Studios.
"Arkane Lyon will continue their focus on immersive experiences where they are hard at work on their upcoming project," the Redfall statement continues. Arkane Lyon's next game is Marvel's Blade, following its work on Deathloop.
There will be no further updates to Redfall, but its servers will remain online for players to access.
Some had speculated the game may see a new lease of life on PlayStation following the release of the previously Microsoft exclusive Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment and Hi-Fi Rush.
Redfall had a disastrous launch last year, which prompted Xbox boss Phil Spencer to apologise for its state of release.
"What can we learn? What can we get better? One thing I'll fight is what went wrong. There's clearly quality and execution things we can do, but one thing I won't do is push against creative aspirations of our teams. Then a lot of people will say, hey, you've got teams, teams know how to do one kind of game, just force them to go do the one kind of game they have a proven track record for. I'm just not a believer in that," said Spencer at the time.
"Maybe that means I'll under deliver for some of our fans out there. But when a team like Rare wants to do Sea of Thieves, when a team like Obsidian wants to do Grounded, when Tango wants to go do Hi-Fi when everybody probably thought they were doing The Evil Within 3, I want to give the teams the creative platform to go and push their ability, push their aspirations.
"But I also need to have a great selection of games that continue to come that surprise and delight our fans. We under-delivered on that and for that I apologise. It's not what I expect, not what I want. But it's ours to deliver."