Summary
Microsoft’s closure ofArkane Austinin May was one of the more shocking events of the past couple of years, even considering the gaming industry’s ongoing struggles with layoffs and downsizing. Only a year after the disappointing release ofRedfall, a critically panned misstep by Arkane Austin, Microsoft shuttered the historic studio, despite its previous successes in creating beloved games likeDishonoredandPrey.
Though people may point to the failure of Redfall as the reason the studio closed, Tango Gameworks was also shuttered despite the success ofHi-Fi Rush. We’ll likely never know Microsoft’s exact reasons, but what we do know is that it came as a shock to studio founder Raphael Colantonio.
Arkane Austin’s Closure Was Shocking
“I absolutely did not see it coming,” Colantonio told usin an interview. “When it was all over, I was like ‘Oh sure, right’. When it was announced, I did not see it coming. I think it’s a shame, I think Arkane has shown multiple times… I mean the last game before Redfall was Prey from the same team. They showed they can pull off a game in that vein if you let them do something they are built for.”
“It’s very shocking that Microsoft, in this case, would be so short-sighted,” he continued. “They’re just looking at a bottom line. When you operate with infinite money, you should give a chance to something that has a chance to succeed. Arkane Austin was a bunch of badasses, so it’s a shame. But it is what it is. When you sell a company to these big behemoths, they don’t operate with logic that makes sense to the rest of the world. They are in a different sphere. The public companies world has different rules that aren’t fully understandable. You know when you sell to them, it can happen. They can keep your IPs and close you down.”
In our full interview, Colantonio also expresses distaste for services like Game Pass, as their ‘buffet-style’ offerings can diminish the value of individual games in the minds of players.
Colantonio founded Arkane Austin in 2006 as a sister studio to his team in Lyon. His goal was to tap into the creative energy present in Austin’s local game development scene. Eventually, his creative partnership with Harvey Smith would result in the creation of Dishonored.
Colantonio departed Arkane in 2017 because of the creative demands of working on triple-A games, among other personal reasons. He founded Wolfeye Studios in 2019, and the studio released its debut title Weird West in 2022. Now, Wolfeye is looking to create a first-person immersive sim in the vein of Dishonored, the game that made its founder famous.
