The closure of Arkane Austin earlier this yr got here as a really sad shock, felt keenly by followers of the immersive sim style. However in a brand new interview with PC Gamer, Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio, who left the corporate in 2017, stated that whereas the shutdown is unhappy, it additionally represents a possibility for a renewal of the style.
“It is unhappy, in fact,” Colatonio stated. “They nonetheless had loads of buddies there, and I needed to see our recreation going endlessly, for apparent causes. However the firm is [gone], however not the folks. The folks survive.”
Colantonio cited Trying Glass Studios, who he described as “the originator of the immersive sim,” which launched groundbreaking video games together with Ultima Underworld (as Blue Sky Productions), System Shock, and Thief earlier than closing its doorways in 2000. Trying Glass helped encourage the muse of Arkane, and a few of its workers ultimately joined the studio.
Black Isle Studios is one other one: Its closure in 2003 was one other unhappy loss, however “it is nonetheless going,” he stated, “as a result of then you definitely had Brian Fargo make his personal firm, you had Troika, you had Obsidian … We nonetheless bear in mind Black Isle as an important firm in that style, however then we nonetheless have their video games.”
He additionally famous that Arkane remains to be round in Lyon, and that folks like himself, Harvey Smith, and Ricardo Naked are nonetheless on the scene too. Colantonio based WolfEye Studios in 2019, and returned to the immersive sim style with Bizarre West, a smaller-scale 2022 manufacturing that was excellent.
“We’re doing extra with WolfEye,” Colantonio stated. “I am certain they are going to do their very own stuff as properly. And so the spirit of the immersive sim, I believe typically that is what you want—typically you want a renewal, you want a brand new impulse. And I believe that is going to spawn extra little immersive sim corporations. So whereas [the Arkane Austin closure] is a tragic occasion, I do not assume it essentially implies that immersive sims are going to go away.”
That is to not say Colantonio thinks the shutdown of Arkane Austin is an effective factor. He wasn’t shocked by Microsoft’s 2021 acquisition of Bethesda, Arkane’s mother or father firm, however in hindsight he is unsure it was factor.
“I suppose it was transfer for many individuals,” he stated. “That is the rule, although. Once you promote to a kind of enormous, enormous behemoths, you often make some huge cash. So there have been lots of people that made some huge cash. After which at this level, you hand them the keys. They usually would possibly—you understand, it is a part of the deal.”
WolfEye Studios is engaged on a model new “first-person motion RPG” that sounds very very like a return to Arkane’s roots. It would not have a title but, however Colantonio lately described it structurally as one thing of a mixture of Fallout: New Vegas, Dishonored, and Prey. I am already reaching for my pockets.
