Sport business veterans of Arkane Austin, the developer finest identified for the Dishonored sequence, have introduced a brand new studio two years after closure.
Black Pony Immersive is led by Harvey Smith, artistic director of Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Demise of the Outsider, and Ben Horne, most lately the manufacturing director on Redfall. The duo labored collectively at Arkane Austin for years till father or mother firm Microsoft shut down the studio in 2024.
The co-founders secretly opened the doorways of Black Pony Immersive in August 2025, solely now making the announcement public. “Throughout a time of business volatility, I am proud to announce the subsequent step in my online game journey with the reveal of our new studio,” mentioned Harvey Smith, who’s performing as CEO and inventive director. “This effort displays all the things we have realized, and all we maintain expensive.”
“This group has labored collectively for years, many years in some circumstances, and is purpose-built to make the formidable video games we love—immersive sims,” mentioned Ben Horne, who’s performing as COO and government producer.”
Black Pony has a headcount of 26 (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz), which incorporates fellow expertise from Arkane, but in addition studios Insomniac, Avalanche, Volition, and Epic. Amongst them are Ricardo Naked, who labored as a designer on the Deus Ex sequence alongside Smith, and Monte Martinez, previously of Ion Storm and WolfEye fame. All the studio’s full-time staff are based mostly in america, with help from contractors and exterior devs throughout the globe.
Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, Smith says the studio would not must “search a lot approval from anybody else,” which makes the staff “very nimble.” Nonetheless, getting up to now wasn’t precisely simple—as Horne says, the co-founders spent quite a lot of time in a “actually horrible setting for fundraising,” speaking to totally different teams about the best way to elevate cash.
“We turned down some offers that simply did not really feel proper,” Horne tells the publication. “You realize, ‘hey, should you guys are keen to perhaps take into consideration this NFT blockchain state of affairs…’ As a lot [as we wanted] to get this off the bottom, let’s attempt to do it the suitable method.”
Black Pony Immersive is at present engaged on an unannounced single-player and narrative-rich sport that may draw from the staff’s expertise on emergent sport mechanics.