Bethesda’s upcoming supernatural shooter Redfall will require “a persistent online connection,” even for the single-player experience. That’s according to an FAQ posted by Bethesda last week, which also confirms that players will need an active Bethesda.net account to play the game.
Many modern single-player games require an online check-in (or even a text message confirmation) the first time they’re launched, and some require periodic online anti-piracy checks. Games that require a persistent online connection for solo play are rarer, though significant exceptions do exist.
While Bethesda has not responded to a request for comment on the decision, game publishers often cite piracy or cheating concerns as reasons to require players to connect to the Internet for solo play. In 2013, for instance, Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime said an online connection was “critical to the long-term integrity of the game experience” for Diablo III and its controversial (and later removed) real-money auction house.
But such online requirements can cause problems when the servers inevitably face problems or go down, as we saw recently with Gran Turismo 7‘s extended outage and less recently with SimCity‘s massive server congestion issues at launch. Such requirements can also be a major hindrance to players without stable Internet service, including those in rural or international settings.
The always-online requirement from Microsoft-owned Bethesda also brings to mind Microsoft’s initial decision to require daily online check-ins to play games on the Xbox One. While Microsoft famously reversed that decision before the console launched, the damage was largely already done from a public messaging perspective.
These decisions aren’t set in stone, though. Zombie shooter Back 4 Blood launched with an online connection requirement in 2021, but a completely offline mode was added just two months later. And EA’s SimCity finally got an offline mode nearly a year after its disastrous online-only launch.
Redfall is set for a May 2 release on Xbox Series X/S and PC and will be available through a Game Pass subscription.
