According to a new report by The Verge, Microsoft is considering closing Arkane Studios and canceling its upcoming title, Marvel’s Blade. This studio closure would be among the several reportedly planned to take place in the next week as part of a larger “Xbox reset”.
On June 15, reports surfaced from various news outlets that Microsoft is planning to either close or sell off multiple studios in its gaming division. While nothing has been officially announced or confirmed, five have been named by reporters so far: Compulsion Games (South of Midnight), Double Fine (Psychonauts), Ninja Theory (Hellblade), and, most recently, Undead Labs (State of Decay), as reported by GamesBeat. These studios have been said to be in various stages of negotiations with Microsoft about their futures and exits. Xbox studios that won’t be shuttered are still expected to undergo significant layoffs.
The Verge reports that sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans state that Dishonored and Deathloop developer Arkane Studios is also under consideration for closure or sale. Arkane, based in Lyon, France, was acquired by Xbox as part of its larger purchase of ZeniMax in 2021, which also gave the company Bethesda and id Software. Under the Xbox umbrella, Arkane Lyon specifically has released Deathloop. Arkane’s former American branch, Arkane Austin, the team behind 2019’s Prey, was shuttered by Xbox in 2024 following the negative reception to its 2023 co-op action game Redfall.
Arkane Studios’ next announced project is Marvel’s Blade, an action game based on the popular hero first revealed at The Game Awards 2023. No gameplay has been shown for the title, but it’s been described as a single-player, mature-rated third-person action-adventure game set in Paris. According to The Verge’s sources, Blade was supposed to debut later this year, but its launch date was internally delayed to 2027 (the game has no publicly known release window). Blade is also reportedly running over budget.
This news comes a week after Entertainment Weekly published a large feature covering the state of Xbox, in which Bethesda’s Todd Howard provided a brief comment about Blade and Arkane as a whole. “I’m not at liberty to say when [we’ll see more],” Howard teases, “but I saw some stuff just yesterday [on May 21] and the folks at Arkane [Studios, the developers] are doing a really, really great job.”
All eyes are looking toward next week for the shoe to drop on all of these reports, given that it will be the end-of-quarter financial calls for Microsoft, which is presumably why the company has not made any official layoff announcement yet.
[Source: The Verge]
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