It’s understandable because inflation can add a lot to costs over five years, but leaving that aside, it’s a bit bold to say what one of Arkane’s former designers claims!

Dishonored 2 didn’t sell very well, even though there were no quality issues. If it weren’t for the reputation of the series, which is a protection in terms of quality, and the fact that Arkane has always produced some of Bethesda’s most challenging games, Arkane Lyon might not exist today! (And Arkane Austin is already closed.) Julien Eveillé claims this. He previously worked on the QA team for Dishonored 2 before becoming one of the designers for Dishonored: Death of the Outsider. That didn’t make much of a splash either, though it wasn’t lacking in quality.

“It was a bit weird and odd. I think when Bethesda looked at the numbers, they thought, OK, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim sold so much. And it cost less to make than Dishonored 2. So they asked questions. From an executive spending standpoint, it makes sense to ask those questions, “Why should we continue with you? But we knew that we had a kind of cachet of making perhaps the most polished games in the entire Bethesda catalog,” Eveillé said.

In Dishonored, the chaos was much more precise (in terms of execution) and the rules system was stricter, but there was just as much opportunity for mischief as there was in Skyrim. That gave the studio a kind of reputation, and that saved the studio. Eveillé added how the studio’s director, Dinga Bakaba, stepped up and restored the trust of the management after the departure of founder Raphael Colantionio, who went on to found WolfEye Studios. At the time, the Arkane people wanted to focus on what the studio was known for, rather than chasing trends like live service games. According to Eveillé, this was crucial to the studio’s future success.

Arkane Lyon is currently working on Marvel’s Blade.

Source: PCGamer