A brand new studio based by former Arkane builders has been introduced.
Black Pony Immersive has been quietly operating for a yr, consists of 26 workers members, and is led by Arkane veterans Harvey Smith, Ricardo Naked and Ben Horne.
Smith, who has been in sport growth for greater than 30 years, was the designer of critically accalimed immersive sim titles reminiscent of Deus Ex, Thief: Lethal Shadows and Space 51, in addition to inventive director of Dishonored and Dishonored 2.
Naked has 27 years of expertise and beforehand labored at Ion Storm and Halfway Video games, earlier than transferring to Arkane the place he labored for 15 years. Horne joined 2K and served as a producer on the NBA 2K collection, earlier than transferring to Arkane the place he turned a manufacturing director.
In an interview with The Recreation Enterprise, Horne defined that moderately than chasing developments within the trade, the studio will give attention to immersive sims as a result of that’s what they’ve all the time cared about.
“The trade is rising in such a method that there are a considerable amount of gamers with a very different urge for food,” he stated. “We don’t actually know what flip the trade would possibly take, and we’re most likely not going to be excellent at development chasing.
“And so, our greatest shot is to rally round a inventive imaginative and prescient that excites us as builders. It excites the viewers that we all know needs to play this kind-of sport. That’s the very best probability of creating one thing nice.”
Smith added: “Thoroughly-paid individuals say issues to me, going method again now, like ‘first-person video games don’t promote’, or ‘RPGs are a distinct segment market’, ‘in case you’re not engaged on a free-to-play sport now, in 5 years you’ll be out of a job’, ‘MMOs are the longer term’, ‘sooner or later, video games could have reside movement video sections with Hollywood actors in them’.
“I’ve heard sensible, good individuals, associates of mine in government positions, say this stuff through the years, and generally they’re proper. However what Ben stated, going again to what you like with a powerful imaginative and prescient, that always comes by for us, in order that’s what now we have obtained to do.”
Harvey Smith’s former studio, Arkane Austin, was shut down by Microsoft in 2024, and its last sport, the co-op shooter Redfall, was formally deserted. Arkane Austin was reportedly pitching an immersive sim earlier than its closure.
