Thank you for watching! Just wanted to make a few quick corrections on some of the retold history in this video:

1:10 Here I said that the success of Dishonored allowed Arkane to split into the Lyon and Austin studio, but this isn't quite true: both studios had existed and worked in tandem since 2005. It was only after Dishonored's success that they started working on separate projects.

2:34 I corrected this in the video itself but it bears repeating: Harvey Smith was the QA lead for System Shock, not Deus Ex, where he was actually lead developer.

2:56 It appears that the Austin branch were the ones lending development support to Fallout 76, not Lyon. Credits for this support are usually vaguely given to "Arkane Studios," so I was unclear as to which half had been helping.

5:38 While I stated my suspicion that "Arkane Magic" was a euphemism for crunch (as it was with the similar "BioWare Magic"), I want to clarify that this was entirely my speculation. People who worked for both branches of Arkane have shared their positive experiences with the company before, so it might not be the case in reality. Apologies if my tone made it come off as fact rather than opinion.

8:47 Lastly, less of a correction and more of an update: turns out that Microsoft changed their tune and did allow Arkane Austin to conclude their work on the offline mode update, and it released on May 30 as the studio's final action before closing its doors. Redfall's base price was also finally lowered to $40 US. Hopefully this means that the game can be preserved even after its servers eventually go offline.

Let's hope for better news in the realm of immersive sims. 451 Forever!

Arkane was already dead.
Most of their staff left before redfall released.
Microsoft is just holding the funeral now.

Replayed original Dishonored approx. 40 times, I'm so addicted to the movement and mechanics of it. Such a great game.

05:41 Arkane Austin was suffering from an understaffed team and a lack of cohesive vision but they never resorted to crunch. The work/life balance there was pretty awesome according to several Arkanites on Twitter, same thing for the Lyon team during "DEATHLOOP."

Now that I've had my rage induced rant, rest in peace Arkane Austin. The studio may be gone, but the good memories and beautiful art they produced will live on.

I am replaying Prey at the moment ... Absolute Brilliant Game ...

They should have just worked on another dishonored game

Arkane's Austin closure makes some sense in that their entire studio culture was destroyed, at least disrupted, by the high turnover. The entire company, including the Austin offices opened in 2006ish, was set up as a very specialized thing. To simplify: carrying on making games in the vein of Looking Glass Studios design philosophies. This includes long-term hirement of specialized people. Then Redfall happened...

Not sure if Jason Schreier had seen this, but I tweeted to him in May 2023 already to take a closer peek at the Redfall credits when they were out. They were curious, to say the least. I think the Indiana Jones IP Bethesda aquired later on would have been a perfect fit for Arkane. Both commercially (see how Larian turned CRPGs into a D&D IP hit). But also design-wise: Thief's grave robbery missions would have been a good template to start. Including their cryptic/vague in-universe maps with notes scribbled onto them. Maps that could have been taken straight outta the grail diary in The Last Crusade . But too late now.

Anyway. Buy Fallen Aces, Gloomwood, Shadows Of Doubt, Weird West... I think the future of this is indie and it does look damn good indeed.

Arkane has one of the best game catalogs in the industry .. I mean every game they made was somewhere between great and an absolute masterpiece.. everything before redfall at least

Dishonored and Prey are indescribable to me and entertain me when I need it in difficult times. And the fact that we most likely won't get any new titles for these games in the future makes me so damn sad and angry. I just sold my XBOX, the direction in which they are going is not for me, this is where I split ways with them. Thank you for the video, just what I needed, finally someone who thinks exactly like me. Btw I love the 451 forever part of the vid.

"The problem with Microsoft is that they just have no taste" Steve Jobs

You’re actually on point about late stage capitalism. This stage is called imperialism with monopolization being one of its main features.

Prey is my favorite game of all time. Every year or two I’ll boot it back up and replay for the 10th time and immediately fall back in love with the amazing and unique gameplay and world that Arkane Austin created. The world of Prey means so much to me and i wish it was able to be expanded on instead of the studio being shut down because of ONE game that the higher ups wanted them to make in the first place. Redfall isn’t the worst thing in the world, yes it has problems: the open world format makes the game feel more shallow, the world building wasn’t nearly as interesting, and don’t get me started on the gameplay. But that game would’ve been so much better if greedy studio execs didn’t require it to be this multiplayer looter shooter that no one even asked for. Anyways i know this was rambly i just wanted to express these passionate feelings because of how much Arkane means to me and I truly hope that those affected by the closure are able to form another studio like Ralph Colentonio did and continue to make great immersive sims like they always wanted to.

I just saw this video and I had no idea Arkane Austin closed at least we still have Lyon , I really enjoyed deathloop and reportedly there is a dlc or a sequel to it which will probably be more connected to the dishonoured franchise.

Redfall seemed to have a lot going for it, Arkane usually creates immersive worlds with great gameplay, I wish they had more control over the direction with the game

I cannot believe that the studio responsible for Dishonored is dead. I have no idea how they became such a terrible game developer. Dishonored is so magnificent.

I genuinely enjoyed my time with Redfall. The atmosphere and world design were just like good ole Arkane, filled to the brim with detailed stuff to read and look at. Lighting engine is great too. But yeah wish they had more time to actually make what they wanted. Hoping for the offline update to actually come out.

This makes me feel even more pessimistic about the future of gaming industry. I started noticing bad patterns way back in 2020 when games started to turn into "live service money grinders", when more and more games started to become online-only. I've always seen games as a way to tell some story, to show some interesting characters or just deliver a memorable experience that will remain in your mind and make you think and make questions. And now I look at the market and can only scrap some nice indie games like Little Nightmares, Sally Face, Black Mesa, Nier Automata etc... It's just that I'm starting to get dissapointed in people who buy "call of booty" or another forgetable live service piece of code each year, burying the single-player games that have a soul with some idea behind it. Well, guess I'll just replay Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Nier Automata, Alice: Madness Returns or old need for speed games...

Prey will always have a special place in my heart

451

Here's to endless hours of good time. Maybe one day, it will be there, a new final entry to our beloved franchise Dishonored. We would be able to immerse ourselves once again in the beautiful world of Dunwall or beyond.