Divisions Arkane Studios Austin Number of employees 150 (2015) | Industry Video game industry | |
Formerly called Arkane Studios SA (1999–2010) Key people Raphael Colantonio (President) Video games Dishonored, Dishonored 2, Dark Messiah of Might and, Dishonored: Definitive Edition, Arx Fatalis Profiles | ||
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.
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. The project has since been cancelled and its existence has been confirmed by Valve employee Marc Laidlaw. Arkane began work on Electronic Arts's LMNO project featuring Steven Spielberg, 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. In July 2009, 2K Marin announced that Arkane was signed up to help with BioShock 2 development, more specifically "design, animation, and art".
In August 2010, the company was acquired by ZeniMax Media. The studio most recently worked on Dishonored 2, a first-person stealth-action game with role-playing elements that was released in November 2016, and received critical acclaim.