A brand new studio based by former Arkane builders has been introduced.
Black Pony Immersive has been quietly working for a yr, consists of 26 workers members, and is led by Arkane veterans Harvey Smith, Ricardo Bare 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 artistic director of Dishonored and Dishonored 2.
Naked has 27 years of expertise and beforehand labored at Ion Storm and Halfway Video games, earlier than shifting to Arkane the place he labored for 15 years. Horne joined 2K and served as a producer on the NBA 2K collection, earlier than shifting to Arkane the place he turned a manufacturing director.
In an interview with The Game Business, Horne defined that relatively than chasing tendencies within the business, the studio will concentrate on immersive sims as a result of that’s what they’ve all the time cared about.
“The business is rising in such a approach that there are a considerable amount of gamers with a extremely different urge for food,” he stated. “We don’t actually know what flip the business would possibly take, and we’re in all probability not going to be superb at development chasing.
“And so, our greatest shot is to rally round a artistic imaginative and prescient that excites us as builders. It excites the viewers that we all know desires to play this kind-of sport. That’s the most effective likelihood of constructing one thing nice.”
Smith added: “Thoroughly-paid individuals say issues to me, going approach again now, like ‘first-person video games don’t promote’, or ‘RPGs are a distinct segment market’, ‘if you happen to’re not engaged on a free-to-play sport now, in 5 years you’ll be out of a job’, ‘MMOs are the long run’, ‘sooner or later, video games could have stay movement video sections with Hollywood actors in them’.
“I’ve heard good, good individuals, buddies of mine in govt positions, say these items over time, and typically they’re proper. However what Ben stated, going again to what you’re keen on with a robust imaginative and prescient, that always comes by way of for us, in order that’s what we’ve received to do.”
Harvey Smith’s former studio, Arkane Austin, was shut down by Microsoft in 2024, and its remaining sport, the co-op shooter Redfall, was formally deserted. Arkane Austin was reportedly pitching an immersive sim earlier than its closure.