Microsoft Denies Removing Any Games From PlayStation Amidst Talks Of Redfall’s Exclusivity on PS5

The vampire game Redfall by Arkane Studios, which was bought by Microsoft after its acquisition of ZeniMax in March 2021. The director of the game, Harvey Smith, revealed that there was a “huge sea change” for Redfall after Microsoft bought the company, which included a decision to not bring the game to PlayStation 5.

While some are speculating that Arkane was working on a PS5 edition of Redfall and canceled it after the buyout, Microsoft has denied any such action and stated that it has not “pulled any games from PlayStation.” The company spokesperson also mentioned that Microsoft has expanded its footprint of games on Sony’s PlayStation since the acquisition of ZeniMax, and the first two games that were shipped after closing were PlayStation 5 exclusives.

However, some have criticized Microsoft for taking a formerly multiplatform game developer and assigning them to a single console platform, which in this case is Xbox. Nevertheless, Microsoft has always maintained that future decisions on whether to distribute ZeniMax games for other consoles will be made on a case-by-case basis.

In a separate interview, Smith reiterated that Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax allowed Arkane to focus on fewer platforms because PlayStation was no longer in the mix. He also mentioned that Redfall coming to Xbox Game Pass is a significant development because it expands the game’s potential audience considerably.

Redfall is set to launch on May 2 for Xbox Game Pass on console and PC. The game has an always-online requirement, even for its single-player mode, but Arkane may remove this requirement at some point.