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Arkane Studios SASU is a French video game developer based in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, ''
Arx Fatalis ''Arx Fatalis'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Arkane Studios and released for Microsoft Windows in 2002 and Xbox in 2003. The game is played from a first-person perspective and is set on a world whose sun has failed, forcing t ...
'', in 2002. Besides the Lyon studio, Arkane Lyon, Arkane Studios operates Arkane Studios LLC ( trading as Arkane Studios Austin) in
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, since July 2006. The studio is most known for creating the ''Dishonored'' series.


History


Founding

Raphaël Colantonio had been part of the French offices of Electronic Arts (EA) during the 1990s, as part of the quality assurance and localisation team for some of Origin Systems' titles including '' System Shock''. In the late 1990s, Colantonio noted there had been a change in EA as with the release of the PlayStation, 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 at Infogrames, was able to co-found Arkane with financial help from his uncle, with their first goal to make a second sequel to '' Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss''. Colantonio was among the eleven founders, of which six were developers, when the company was established on 1 October 1999 in
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, France, with an investment of 1,150,000 French francs.


2000s

While Colantonio had support from
Paul Neurath Paul Neurath is a video game designer and creative director. He founded both Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Looking Glass Studios) and Floodgate Entertainment. He was the creative director of Zynga Boston. In 2014 he founded OtherSide Entert ...
, one of the original developers of ''Ultima 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 of ''Ultima Underworld'', ''
Arx Fatalis ''Arx Fatalis'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Arkane Studios and released for Microsoft Windows in 2002 and Xbox in 2003. The game is played from a first-person perspective and is set on a world whose sun has failed, forcing t ...
''. 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 secured JoWooD Productions for publication, eventually releasing in 2002. While the game was well received, it was considered a commercial failure. ''Arx Fatalis'' critical praise gave Arkane the opportunity for them to work with
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
to develop a new title on their Source 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 by Ubisoft and asked to apply the ''Arx Fatalis'' game engine to their '' Might and Magic''. This became '' Dark Messiah of Might and Magic'', released in October 2006. It refined the first-person melee combat of ''Arx Fatalis'' with a lesser emphasis on role-playing elements. 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. 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. Between 2006 and 2007, the company was working in conjunction with
Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
to develop a spinoff game in the ''Half-Life'' series called '' Ravenholm'', expanding on work that Warren Spector's Junction Point Studios had done previously. 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. On completion of ''Dark Messiah'', Arkane started development of a new first-person shooter title, '' The Crossing'' using the Source engine. Colantonio described ''The 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. While Colantonio had finally found one offer that was satisfactory to him, the studio was approached by EA to help work on '' LMNO'', a game it was developing with
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spi ...
; as EA's offer was more valuable and more stable, Colantonio decided to cancel ''The Crossing'' to focus the studio on ''LMNO''. However, about two years after this, EA opted to cancel ''LMNO'' as well, forcing Arkane to take up assisting roles for a few years. This including developing the multiplayer component of Activision's '' Call of Duty: World at War'', and helping with "design, animation, and art" for 2K Marin's '' BioShock 2''. While trying to grow the Austin studio, Colantonio met with Harvey 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 of '' Dishonored'', and worked out how they would share responsibilities at the studio. Smith formally came on board Arkane in 2008.


2010s

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 by Bethesda Softworks, who had an idea of a stealth-based game set in feudal Japan which they wanted to name ''Dishonored'', and felt Arkane's talents were ideal for the job and wanted to contract them for the title. According to Colantonio, Bethesda's vice-president of development Todd Vaughn had seen Arkane's work in ''Arx Fatalis'' and its sequel, and while Bethesda had been interested in these, they did not react fast enough before Arkane had taken another route. 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 between ''Arx Fatalis'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' games. Arkane worked under contract for a few months but soon were fully acquired by ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent, by August 2010, as part of ZeniMax's larger growth after recently acquiring id Software. 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 for ''Dishonored'' based on the pitch that Colantonio and Smith had earlier developed, and moved the setting from Japan to one inspired by London while retaining the ''Dishonored'' name and stealth aspects. ''Dishonored'' was released in 2012. Smith moved to France to lead the Lyon studio in the sequel '' Dishonored 2'' which was released in November 2016, while Colantonio stayed at the Austin studio to lead the development of ''
Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
'', a spiritual sequel of both '' System Shock'' and ''Arx Fatalis'', that was released in 2017. ''Prey'' shared its name only with the intellectual property that ZeniMax had acquired from Human Head Studios and their 2005 ''
Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
'' and cancelled ''
Prey 2 ''Prey 2'' was a cancelled first-person shooter video game to be published by Bethesda Softworks and planned as a sequel to the 2006 video game ''Prey''. Though ''Prey 2'' was announced by 3D Realms in 2006, a few months after release of the fir ...
'' games. In June 2017, about two months following ''Prey''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." Smith took over management of the Austin studio, while Colantonio stayed with the Lyon studio to help transition it to new management. Arkane assisted other ZeniMax studios as they finished off support for ''Dishonored 2'' and ''Prey''; these included supporting Bethesda Game Studios for '' Fallout 76'', and MachineGames in level design for '' Wolfenstein: Youngblood'' and '' Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot''. During Bethesda's E3 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.


2020s

ZeniMax Media was acquired by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
for in March 2021 and became part of
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
. Following the release of ''Deathloop'', 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". Bakaba was named as the studio head for Arkane Lyon in November 2021.


Games developed

In addition to developing with third-party game engines, such as using CryEngine for ''
Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...
'', the studio has also developed their own Void Engine based on a heavily modified version of the
id Tech 5 id Tech 5 is a proprietary game engine developed by id Software. It followed its predecessors, id Tech 1, 2, 3 and 4, all of which had subsequently been published under the GNU General Public License. It was seen as a major advancement over i ...
Engine, which they used for ''Dishonored 2'' and ''Deathloop''. According to ''Dishonored 2''s art director Sébastien Mitton, Void uses about 20% of id Tech 5, the rest rewritten to have larger and denser maps.


Cancelled games


References


External links

* {{Dishonored series 2010 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Lyon French companies established in 1999 Video game companies established in 1999 Video game companies of France Video game development companies ZeniMax Media