Since its founding in 1999, Arkane Studios has brought us surprising experiences such as Arx Fatalis, Dishonored, Prey, and Deathloop. Unfortunately, the disastrous launch of Redfall in 2023 led to the closure of the studio located in Austin, Texas. Only the Lyon branch based in France remains active.
In a recent video, Arkane co-founders Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith looked back on their careers at the company. They’ve since moved on, but had plenty of stories to share.
One of the most interesting involves two games they could have developed. The titles in question are Thief 4 and Blade Runner. Colantonio briefly touched on the subject.
“Before we did Dishonored, we were supposed to either do Thief or Blade Runner. Bethesda approached us with the proposition: ‘Hey, we have the Thief franchise, and we know the people to make that game, and it’s you’. It’s our game.
We were in such a dire situation business-wise, and they came up not only to save us from business, but also to bring frankly, the IP that I would have liked to work on the most.”
Smith gave even more details.
“We were both so excited. Blade Runner and Thief, like two of our favorite things of all time. We had an incredible proposal for Thief. It would have been Thief 4. And for Blade Runner, we had been working with our brilliant animator, who specialized in first-person combat—a really great guy—and a game designer on top of all that.”
In the end, those projects didn’t pan out, and Arkane Studios kept the foundations of Thief 4 to do Dishonored, with the support of Bethesda Softworks.
It’s fascinating to hear about Arkane Studios’ history and the projects that almost came to life! Their unique approach to game design has certainly left a mark on the industry. It’s always intriguing to think about the “what-ifs” in the gaming world.