From The Ashes Of Arkane Will Rise A Cool New Game Studio

You don’t need me to tell you the actions of Microsoft in the past few years have caused a ton of damage to the game industry, but the good news is, the end is not “the end.” Just because XBox bought a bunch of talent just to throw it away doesn’t mean that talent will never make another game again.

One of the worst casualties has been Arkane Studios, the place that made some of the coolest first-person titles of the last twenty years. Prey, the Dishonored series and Deathloop were all theirs. As someone who deeply enjoyed their stuff and has given up all hope of ever seeing a Dishonored 3, the news that they are reassembling as a new, independent force is welcome…and so is the announcement that they’ll be making more of the same type of games.

Harvey Smith was the co-creative director on Dishonored, the creative director on Dishonored 2 and lead game designer on the original Deus Ex. He and collaborator Ben Horne have announced the founding of Black Pony Immersive, a new studio that will boast the likes of talent from Arkane, Insomniac, Epic, Avalanche and Volition, and people who worked on Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey and Just Cause.

I’ve never heard this term before, but they’re calling them “immersive sims,” which is all sorts of confusing. They mean a world rich in lore where you can play the story in any style you want — action or stealth. When I hear “sim” I think of a computer game where you overlord a village or command the armies of the world or play around with a bunch of weird-acting people. Why can’t they call them “stealth-action games”?

“During a time of industry volatility, I’m proud to announce the next step in my video game journey with the reveal of our new studio,” Smith says. “At our new studio, we’re building exactly the kind of single-player games we’re most passionate about.” Horne adds, “This group has worked together for years, decades in some cases, and is purpose-built to make the ambitious games we love — immersive sims. We can’t wait to reveal more soon.”

Since games today take a ridiculously long time to make we may not hear about Black Pony’s first title for a long time. Hopefully we get something before the decade is through.