Rumor: Xbox Exclusive Redfall Could Be Delayed

One of the surprise game announcements at Microsoft's E3 2021 press conference was the co-op vampire slaying game Redfall from Arkane Studios. Arkane is primarily known for its single-player experiences, so Redfall is quite the departure from the studio's usual work, but that has lent itself to some extra intrigue from the community. While a specific release date for the game hasn't been announced at the time of this writing, it's believed that Redfall is looking to launch at some point in the summer of 2022.

Unfortunately, the latest rumors suggest that Redfall may not meet its planned summer 2022 release window. According to the Defining Duke podcast and its hosts MrMattyPlays and Lord Cognito, Redfall's release date may have been pushed back. They think that it's possible that Redfall will now release at some point this holiday season as opposed to this summer, which would be a big blow for the Xbox exclusives lineup in the first half of 2022, to say the least.

If the Redfall release date is delayed as the rumors suggest, then it will leave a pretty big gap between first-party Xbox releases, based on the games we know about right now. STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl, while not a first-party Xbox game, is nevertheless an Xbox console exclusive that was supposed to launch in April only for it to get delayed all the way to December, and if Redfall suffers a similar delay, then Xbox may have a very top-heavy 2022.

(Rumor) Redfall maybe delayed according to MrMattyPlays and Lord Cognito on the latest episode of Defining Duke podcast🧂

Neither says they know for sure if the source is valid but it seems to be something floating.

Source:https://t.co/m2Om7BFda4 pic.twitter.com/5nLppoaMCL
— Idle Sloth (@IdleSloth84) January 15, 2022

The end of 2022 is already looking especially busy for Xbox, with STALKER 2 dropping in December and Bethesda's Starfield sci-fi RPG releasing November 11. Redfall getting pushed back to the holiday season would make things even busier, potentially pulling attention away from the other Xbox exclusives releasing around the same time.

Now, it's always possible that Xbox has some surprises up its sleeve and will have more first-party games on deck for the first half of 2022, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, one has to imagine that Xbox will make up for the potential Redfall delay by bolstering the Xbox Game Pass lineup with more third-party deals, like how it's bringing Rainbow Six Extraction to Game Pass on day one.

For now, fans will just have to wait and see what happens with co-op vampire shooter Redfall. As it stands, the Redfall release date delay is merely a rumor at the time of this writing, and fans should wait for an official announcement before they get too worked up about it.

Redfall is in development for PC and Xbox Series X.