Redfall PS5 version was in development, but cancelled after the Xbox buyout

A PS5 version of Redfall was in development at Arkane, but was abruptly cancelled after Microsoft purchased Bethesda.

In an interview with IGN France, creative director Harvey Smith said that "we were acquired by Microsoft and it was change with a capital C. They came in and they said 'no PlayStation 5, we're focusing on Xbox, PC, and the Game Pass'." 

Smith went on to say that the cancellation of the PS5 version was something of a positive; "It's [...] a good decision I think. [It helps to] support Game Pass and have one less platform to worry about, one less complexity."

It's unsurprising that Arkane - a studio with a multi-platform past and significant links to PlayStation (its previous game, Deathloop, was a timed PlayStation exclusive) - would be working on a PS5 version of its game. It's also not surprising that Microsoft would take that PS5 version away - after honoring the PlayStation releases of Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo, the company is still waiting to start truly leveraging its ownership of Bethesda.

However, it's not a fantastic look, as Microsoft's other notable merger - the Xbox Activision deal - seems to hinge on the company's attempts to make Call of Duty as accessible as possible. Sony, a company which has been adopting a scorched earth approach to blocking the merger, is likely to latch onto the active cancellation of Redfall's port as evidence that Microsoft isn't living up to its CoD-shaped promises.

Xbox has been very clear that its new Bethesda games won't be coming to PlayStation - Starfield on PS4 or PS5 definitely isn't happening, for example - and so there was no significant expectation that Redfall would be an exception, at least among players. In the ongoing merger saga, however, this could be a powerful arrow in Sony's quiver.

Check out what we thought of Arkane's latest in our Redfall hands-on preview.