Redfall Gamers Are Getting Refunds From Microsoft For Bite Back DLC

Microsoft paid $7.5 billion to acquire game publisher Bethesda Softworks, giving it access to a raft of popular franchises and whatever the company was working on. To Microsoft's dismay, it owns Redfall first-person shooter crashed and burned upon release last year. Microsoft opted to shut down developer Arkane Austin recently, and that means Redfall's promised DLC won't happen. So, players are getting their money back.

At the time of the closure, Arkane had already announced a "Hero" DLC expansion. It actually sold a $99 "Bite Back" edition at launch, promising "two future heroes." It could also be purchased separately for $26.99. There was no news on the expansion a year after release, irking those who paid for the content on release day. And then the studio was closed without warning.

Players who contacted Microsoft and Bethesda to complain were given the runaround and directed to an online form, but that appears to have been unnecessary. According to the latest online chatter, purchasers of the Bite Back edition and separate DLC are being refunded even if they didn't fill out the form. With Arkane Austin closed, there's no expansion. Presumably, Microsoft realized it would have to give everyone their money back, even if they didn't fill out the form.

Refunds are being issued to the original payment method, and there's no way to change that. If you bought the expansion, check your email to find details. There is one caveat, though. Anyone who purchased a physical edition of the game with a redemption code will have to reach out to support and probably fill out the aforementioned form.


Redfall had an undeniably neat premise. Set in the isolated town of Redfall, players had to use the unique capabilities of their chosen character to battle a horde of vampires that occupied the town. However, the game received middling to negative reviews, and improvements were slow to appear. Any hope for turning Redfall into a viable franchise is now gone—when a company gives people their money back even without being asked, you know it's over. It's the same thing Google did when Stadia folded.

Microsoft is all about cutting costs lately. The Xbox maker has been paring down its gaming division, recently closing Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games, and Roundhouse Games in addition to Arkane. It dropped a cool $68.7 billion to buy Activision-Blizzard, and the Xbox is still lagging the PlayStation 5.