According to Raphael Colantonio, Microsoft made a mistake by closing its Arkane studio in Austin (the other team in Lyon is fine).

Colantonio founded Arkane in 1999. In 2006, he helped expand the French studio to the United States. After the Austin studio, Colantonio’s last Arkane project was the 2017 Prey reboot. He has since left to work with his own team at WolfEye Studios. Arkane Austin’s last game was Redfall.

Colantonio told PCGamer that he thinks it was a bad idea for Microsoft to shut down Arkane’s No. 2 studio: “I think if you look a little bit, it’s obvious that Arkane Austin was a very special group of people that had done some cool things and could do it again. I think it was a decision that just came down to, ‘We have to cut something. Was it to please the investors, the stock market? They play a different game. The rules that they play, we may not understand. It’s a different thing. It’s hard to know why they did what they did. The only thing I stand by is that the specific decision to kill Arkane Austin was not a good decision.

To recreate a very specific group like that is, I dare say, impossible. It takes forever. When you have the magic of Harvey [Smith] and Ricardo [Bare], etc., all coming together, it’s a specific moment in time and space that just worked out that way, that took forever to achieve. Those people together can really do magic. It’s not like, “It doesn’t matter, we’ll just hire again. No, try it. That’s what big corporations do all the time. They try to just hire massively and overpay people to create these magical groups. It doesn’t work that way. So to me it was stupid. But what do I know?” Colantonio said.

Meanwhile, Arkane Lyon is working on Marvel’s Blade, while WolfEye is working on a first-person action RPG.

Source: PCGamer