Redfall might drop its always-online requirement for its single-player mode. Game director Harvey Smith told Eurogamer that developer Arkane is “working actively” to drop the requirement, but nothing is confirmed at this stage.
Smith said there are people who live in places and have circumstances where they cannot guarantee a consistent and stable internet connection. “There are people who live in places where there are outages or their broadband is shitty, or they’re competing with their family members, because their mum’s streaming a movie or their brother’s on another device. And so I think it is a legitimate critique,” Smith said.
The developer confirmed that Arkane has already begun work to “address this in the future,” but whether or not the always-online requirement ever gets dropped for good remains to be seen.
“We have to do some things like encrypt your save games and do a bunch of UI work to support it. And so we are looking into–I’m not supposed to promise anything–but we’re looking into and working actively toward fixing that in the future,” Smith said.
If Arkane does end up dropping its always-online requirement for single-player, whether or not this would be in place for launch in May remains to be seen.
But why the always-online requirement in the first place? It was about capturing player data to help make the game better, as opposed to anything “insidious,” Smith said.
“It allows us to do some accessibility stuff,” Smith said. “It allows us for telemetry, like, if everybody’s falling off ladders and dying, holy sh** that shows up. And so we can go and tweak the ladder code. There are reasons we set out to do that that are not insidious.”
A internet connection will, of course, be required for Redfall’s multiplayer modes. Another high-profile upcoming game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, will require a constant internet connection as well.
Arkane releases in May on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC. For more, check out GameSpot’s recent preview, “Don’t Worry, Redfall Puts An Unmistakably Arkane Spin On The Looter Shooter.”
