Arkane Studios

Arkane Studios is a French studio based in Lyon. It was founded on 1 October 1999 by eleven partners, six of them developers. One was Raphaël Colantonio, who had worked at Electronic Arts' French offices on quality assurance and localisation for Origin Systems games such as System Shock, and who had financial help from his uncle. The aim was to make a second sequel to Ultima Underworld, but EA, which owned the rights, set conditions that Colantonio refused.

Instead, Arkane made a game in the spirit of Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis (2002), published by JoWooD: critics liked it but it sold poorly. Ubisoft then asked the studio to apply its engine to Might and Magic, which led to Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (2006). That year Colantonio opened Arkane Austin in Texas. Cancelled projects followed, among them Ravenholm with Valve, The Crossing and LMNO, which EA was making with Steven Spielberg, along with support work on Call of Duty: World at War and BioShock 2. Harvey Smith joined in 2008.

In 2010, with its contract work drying up, Bethesda Softworks approached Arkane with a stealth game idea, and that August Bethesda's parent ZeniMax Media bought the studio. Colantonio and Smith reworked the concept and moved it to a London-inspired city: Dishonored (2012). The Lyon studio then made Dishonored 2 (2016), while Austin made Prey (2017). Colantonio stepped down as president in June 2017. In 2019 Arkane Lyon unveiled Deathloop, released in September 2021 as a timed PlayStation 5 console exclusive.

Microsoft bought ZeniMax in March 2021, bringing Arkane into Microsoft Gaming under Bethesda. Dinga Bakaba has headed Arkane Lyon since November 2021. Arkane Austin released Redfall (2023) and was closed by Microsoft on 7 May 2024. The Lyon studio is working on Marvel's Blade, a third-person action game announced at The Game Awards 2023 and still in development in early 2026.