Arkane Studios SASU

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Video games
Founded	1 October 1999; 26 years ago (1999-10-01)
Founder	Raphaël Colantonio
Headquarters	Lyon , France
Key people	Dinga Bakaba (studio director and co-creative director) Sébastien Mitton (co-creative director andart director)
Products	Arx Fatalis Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Dishonored series Prey Marvel's Blade
Number of employees	150[1] (2020)
Parent	ZeniMax Media (2010–present)
Website	arkane-studios.com

Arkane Studios SASU is a Frenchvideo game developer based inLyon. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game,Arx Fatalis, in 2002. The studio has created the popularDishonored series as well as developingPrey (2017),Deathloop (2021) andRedfall (2023).Marvel's Blade is under development.

BesidesArkane Lyon, Arkane Studios also operatedArkane Studios LLC^[2] (traded asArkane Austin) inAustin, Texas, from July 2006 until its closure in May 2024.^[3]

Raphaël Colantonio had been part of the French offices ofElectronic Arts (EA) during the 1990s, as part of the quality assurance and localisation team for some ofOrigin Systems' titles includingSystem Shock. In the late 1990s, Colantonio noted there had been a change in EA as with the release of thePlayStation, the company had shown more interest in sports titles and eschewing non-sports titles from companies like Origin. Colantonio left the company, and after a brief time atInfogrames, was able to co-found Arkane with financial help from his uncle, with their first goal to make a second sequel toUltima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.^[4] Colantonio was among the eleven founders, of whom six were developers, when the company was established on 1 October 1999 inLyon, France, with an investment of 1,150,000French francs (equivalent to €250,000 in 2022).^[5][6]

While Colantonio had support fromPaul Neurath, one of the original developers ofUltima Underworld, EA, who owned the rights, would not allow Arkane to make a sequel with their intellectual property unless he accepted some of their provisions. Colantonio refused to accept this and instead had Arkane set out on a game in the spirit ofUltima Underworld,Arx Fatalis.^[4] Colantonio had difficulty in getting a publisher; with finances nearly exhausted, they had signed one small publisher who had gone bankrupt within the month, but later securedJoWooD Productions for publication, eventually releasing in 2002. While the game was well received, it was considered a commercial failure.^[4]

Arx Fatalis's critical praise gave Arkane the opportunity for them to work withValve to develop a new title on theirSource engine, and Colantonio opted to make a sequel,Arx Fatalis 2. However, the poor sales of the first game made it difficult to find a publisher; They were approached byUbisoft and asked to apply theArx Fatalis game engine to theirMight and Magic. This becameDark Messiah of Might and Magic, released in October 2006. It refined the first-person melee combat ofArx Fatalis with a lesser emphasis on role-playing elements.^[4] During this time, Colantonio moved from France to Austin, Texas leaving the main studio in the hands of his colleagues while he set up Arkane Austin in June 2006.^[4] Over the next several years, most of the development work was done out of the Lyon studio where production costs were cheaper due to beneficial economic conditions, while the Austin studio was used for establishing relationships with other studios as to generate work-for-hire projects to augment Arkane's own projects.^[7]

Between 2006 and 2007, the company was working in conjunction withValve to develop a spinoff game in theHalf-Life series calledRavenholm, expanding on work thatWarren Spector'sJunction Point Studios had done previously.^[8] While Arkane and Valve had worked together to produce about nine to ten levels for a playable alpha build, the project was cancelled, believed to be due to lateness and cost of the project to date.^[9][10] On completion ofDark Messiah, Arkane started development of a newfirst-person shooter title,The Crossing using the Source engine. Colantonio describedThe Crossing as "crossplayer", having principally single-player gameplay but influenced by online multiplayer elements. The title had a budget of around $15 million, which made it difficult to find a publisher that did not include strict rules and requirements in the contract.^[11] While Colantonio had finally found one offer that was satisfactory to him, the studio was approached by EA to help work onLMNO, a game it was developing withSteven Spielberg; as EA's offer was more valuable and more stable, Colantonio decided to cancelThe Crossing to focus the studio onLMNO.^[4] However, about two years after this, EA opted to cancelLMNO as well, forcing Arkane to take up assisting roles for a few years.^[4] This including developing the multiplayer component of Activision'sCall of Duty: World at War,^[12][13] and helping with "design, animation, and art" for2K Marin'sBioShock 2.^[14]

While trying to grow the Austin studio, Colantonio met withHarvey Smith, a game developer that he had met earlier in his career and kept in contact with. Colantonio and Smith recognised they had several similar talents and initially felt that the two of them working in the same studio would be too troublesome, but they then considered if they were working on the same game together how their talents would mesh well. They quickly devised a "ninja pitch" that would tie into the basis ofDishonored, and worked out how they would share responsibilities at the studio. Smith formally came on board Arkane in 2008.^[4]

Entering into 2010 with no game of their own, and their contract work having started to run down, the studio was preparing to let go of its staff to conserve costs. They were approached byBethesda Softworks, who had an idea of a stealth-based game set infeudal Japan which they wanted to nameDishonored, and felt Arkane's talents were ideal for the job and wanted to contract them for the title.^[1] According to Colantonio, Bethesda's vice-president of development Todd Vaughn had seen Arkane's work inArx Fatalis and its sequel, and while Bethesda had been interested in these, they did not react fast enough before Arkane had taken another route.^[4] Vaughn told Arkane that they were interested in publishing a first-person immersive game, and Arkane was the only option they had. Colantonio recognised Bethesda was the best fit for Arkane, considering the similarities betweenArx Fatalis andThe Elder Scrolls games.^[4] Arkane worked under contract for a few months but soon were fully acquired byZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent, by August 2010, as part of ZeniMax's larger growth after recently acquiringid Software.^[15] With financial backing and a parent company that appreciated good game design, Arkane had the time and creative freedom to revamp Bethesda's original concept forDishonored based on the pitch that Colantonio and Smith had earlier developed, and moved the setting from Japan to one inspired by London while retaining theDishonored name and stealth aspects.^[1]Dishonored was released in 2012.

Smith moved to France to lead the Lyon studio in the sequelDishonored 2 which was released in November 2016,^[16] while Colantonio stayed at the Austin studio to lead the development ofPrey, aspiritual sequel of bothSystem Shock andArx Fatalis, that was released in 2017.Prey shared its name only with the intellectual property that ZeniMax had acquired fromHuman Head Studios and their 2006Prey and cancelledPrey 2 games.^[17][18]

In June 2017, about two months followingPrey's release, Colantonio announced he was stepping down as president of Arkane. He said in a statement: "It is time for me to step out to spend some time with my son and reflect on what is important to me and my future."^[19] Smith took over management of the Austin studio, while Colantonio stayed with the Lyon studio to help transition it to new management.^[19]

Arkane assisted other ZeniMax studios as they finished off support forDishonored 2 andPrey; these included supportingBethesda Game Studios forFallout 76,^[20] andMachineGames in level design forWolfenstein: Youngblood andWolfenstein: Cyberpilot.^[21] During Bethesda'sE3 2019 press conference, Arkane Lyon unveiled its next game,Deathloop, a science-fiction based first-person shooter with the player-character stuck in a time loop.^[22]

ZeniMax Media was acquired byMicrosoft forUS$7.5 billion in March 2021, consolidating Arkane Studios withinMicrosoft Gaming alongside other development teams under Bethesda Softworks. As part of the arrangement for acquiring ZeniMax, Microsoft honored existing contractual agreements the publisher had made with otherplatform holders, includingDeathloop's launch as a timed console exclusive forPlayStation 5, which released that September.^[23][24]

Following the release ofDeathloop, Romuald Capron, head of Arkane Lyon for seventeen years, announced in October 2021 he was stepping down and with Dinga Bakaba, Sébastien Mitton, Hugues Tardif and Morgan Barbe left in charge of managing the studio. Capron stated that he felt "the need to try something new" and "my goal is to keep on helping video game companies, and others, to make their creative vision become a reality, since that’s what I love to do".^[25] Bakaba was named as the studio head for Arkane Lyon in November 2021.^[26]

In May 2023, Arkane Austin released theco-opfirst-person shooter titleRedfall.^[27] Approximately 70% of the Austin team who had worked onPrey would be gone by the timeRedfall's development was complete.^[28] AtThe Game Awards 2023, Arkane Lyon announcedMarvel's Blade in collaboration withMarvel Games and Bethesda Softworks, based on theMarvel Comics characterof the same name. It will be a third-personaction-adventure game, representing a departure from thefirst-person perspective-driven action titles previously developed by Arkane.^[2][3]

Microsoft closed several internal studios within ZeniMax, including Arkane Austin, on May 7, 2024, ending further development ofRedfall. The closure reportedly came as a surprise to developers, who were notified by Matt Booty in an email memo.^[29] Before the closure, developers at Arkane Austin were continuing to work on the delayed 'Hero Pass' content forRedfall, which was due for release on Halloween 2024.^[30][31] The closure of the studio resulted in 96 job losses.^[32]

In addition to developing with third-party game engines, such as usingUnreal 3 for the firstDishonored andCryEngine forPrey, the studio has also developed their own Void Engine based on a heavily modified version of theid Tech 5 Engine. The Void Engine has poweredDishonored 2 andDeathloop.^[34] According toDishonored 2's art director Sébastien Mitton, Void uses about 20% of id Tech 5, the rest rewritten to have larger and denser maps.^[35][36][37]

• Official website

• 2010 mergers and acquisitions
• Companies based in Lyon
• French companies established in 1999
• Microsoft subsidiaries
• Video game companies established in 1999
• Video game companies of France
• Video game development companies
• ZeniMax Media

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