Arkane Studios

Arkane Studios SASU
Formerly called
 Arkane Studios SA (1999–2010)
Subsidiary
Industry Video game industry
Founded 12 October 1999 (1999-10-12)
Headquarters Lyon, France
Key people
 Raphaël Colantonio (CEO)
Products
Number of employees
 150[1] (2015)
Parent ZeniMax Media
Divisions Arkane Studios Austin
Website arkane-studios.com

Arkane Studios SASU (formerly Arkane Studios SA) is a French video game developer based in Lyon, France. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, Arx Fatalis, in 2002. Arkane Studios opened a second studio, Arkane Studios Austin, in Austin, Texas in July 2006.[2]

History

Arkane Studios's first game was Arx Fatalis. The studio's second game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, was released in October 2006. It refined the first-person melee combat of Arx Fatalis with a lesser emphasis on role-playing elements.

In December 2006, the company announced its new first-person shooter title, The Crossing, which was later cancelled. Between 2006 and 2007, the company was working in conjunction with Valve Corporation to develop a game in the Half-Life series called Return to Ravenholm.[3] The project has since been cancelled and its existence has been confirmed by Valve employee Marc Laidlaw.[4] Arkane began work on Electronic Arts's LMNO project featuring Steven Spielberg,[5] which was also later cancelled.

In 2008 the company helped in the development of maps for the multiplayer component of Call of Duty: World at War.[6] In July 2009, 2K Marin announced that Arkane was signed up to help with BioShock 2 development, more specifically "design, animation, and art".[7]

In August 2010, the company was acquired by ZeniMax Media.[8] The studio most recently worked on Dishonored, a first-person stealth-action game with role-playing elements that was released in October 2012, and received critical acclaim.[9]

Games

Title Year Genre Platform
Arx Fatalis 2002 RPG Windows, Xbox
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic 2006 RPG Windows, Xbox 360
Dishonored 2012 First person stealth Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Dishonored 2 2016 First person stealth Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Prey[10] 2017 First-person shooter Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Cancelled games

Title Genre Platform Note
LMNO Action Windows Level design assistance[11]
The Crossing First-person shooter Windows, Xbox 360
Half-Life 2: Episode 4 / Return to Ravenholm First-person shooter [12]

Additional work

Title Year Genre Platform Note
Call of Duty: World at War 2008 First-person shooter Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows Mobile Multiplayer only
KarmaStar 2009 Strategy iOS
BioShock 2 2010 First-person shooter Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 Animation/Level design assistance

References

  1. ↑ Feldman, Curt (6 July 2006). "Arkane confirms Texas studio". GameSpot. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Arkane Studios Opens Austin Office". Austin Chapter. International Game Developers Association. 7 July 2006. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  3. ↑ ""Return To Ravenholm" – A Cancelled 2007 Half-Life Project By Valve Software And Arkane Studios, Developers of Dark Messiah, Dishonored And The Crossing/". Lambda Generation. 12 January 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  4. ↑ "Marc Laidlaw On The Cancelled Half-Life Spin-offs: Return To Ravenholm And "Episode Four"". Lambda Generation. 13 January 2012. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "The mirror men of Arkane". The Verge. 27 June 2012.
  6. ↑ "Arkane named as fourth BioShock 2 developer". VG247.com. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  7. ↑ "BioShock 2 zaps fourth dev house". GameSpot. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
  8. ↑ Matas, Jeff (12 August 2010). "Zenimax Acquires Arkane Studios". Shacknews. GameFly Media. Archived from the original on 16 August 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  9. ↑ Henson, Ben (19 December 2015). "Why Dishonored Is One Of The Best Games Of 2012". Game Informer. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
  10. ↑ Schreier, Jason (12 June 2016). "Bethesda Re-Announces Prey". Kotaku. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  11. ↑ "The Story Behind Steven Spielberg's LMNO from 1UP.com". 1Up.com. Retrieved 1 October 2015.
  12. ↑ "New images of Half-Life 2: Episode 4 / Return to Ravenholm". valvetime.net. Retrieved 14 June 2015.

External links

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