Arkane Studios
More info
- Creator
- Raphaël Colantonio
- Founded
- Owner
- Microsoft (Bethesda)
- Type
- Game developer
- Website
- arkane-studios.com
The French specialists in the "immersive sim" — games where the level is a box of problems and the player picks the tools.
Raphaël Colantonio founded Arkane in Lyon in 1999, in the lineage of Looking Glass and System Shock. After Arx Fatalis and the action game Dark Messiah, Dishonored (2012) broke through with its mix of stealth, powers and player choice; Prey (2017) refined the form. The firm was bought by ZeniMax/Bethesda and, since 2021, belongs to Microsoft's game studios. The flops Deathloop and especially Redfall (2023) hurt its reputation, and the Austin studio was shut down. The Lyon office remains.