Arkane Studios - The Untold History

I've found some of these Noclip documentaries pretty interesting. The series on Supergiant Games was a very good insight into what goes on in an indie studio.
 
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I've found some of these Noclip documentaries pretty interesting. The series on Supergiant Games was a very good insight into what goes on in an indie studio.
They got better with Patreon and crowdfunding that allowed traveling, and better equipment. The Bethesda, Obsidian, and CD Project documentaries where great also.

As for this one tis a shame Arkane Studios lost it's way after the disaster that was Dishonored 2, and Bethesda forcing changes because of lower then expected sales.

Based on a few interviews their next game will be some type of connected online world. Nothing really set in stone just based on a few comments over the last two years.

Edit: Shame Raphaël Colantonio left to form his own studio also.:(
 
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What disaster. I love DH2!
It's Prey that was mediocre pos.

Anyway, I'm not interested in the vid. If someone watches it, please share if they mentioned anything about Deathloop.
 
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What disaster. I love DH2!.
It was a disaster that didn't meet the sale expectations of Zenimax Bethesda's parent company. Remember 1-2 million sales is nothing to be proud of nowadays.

The expansion sold less and now you wont see a full SP game anymore. This caused a shift to Co-Op or some type of online play in every new game published by them.

If you don't believe me search google.
Recently news broke that Dishonored was shelved for the foreseeable future. While this news was only just revealed to the world, Arkane in Lyon, France has known this for the past year. While my sources couldn’t say with certainty if this was what caused studio founder Raphaël Colantonio to disembark from the studio last year, it was stated that he left shortly after the pitch for both Dishonored 3 and Prey 2 had been turned down by Zenimax.

With Arkane Lyon’s flagship series put on hold, and with no other game approved to start production, the studio was broken into multiple teams. The first worked on Wolfenstein 2 DLC with Machine Games, while another team aided with the development of Wolfenstein Cyberpilot. A game as per a source that is “not great”. Meanwhile, any team members who weren’t working on Wolfenstein projects were left to prepare a project for a new and original game. A game, that as of July 2018, has yet to be officially green lit.

I was unable to gather any specifics as to what the current idea for a new game entailed, but I was informed that it’s being pitched with live service in mind. A direction that Zenimax is pushing for.

Across the pond in Texas, Arkane Austin is going through a similar conundrum.
The studio should be a year into development for Prey 2, but after weak sales of the first game — a game which was already under immense pressure to succeed after the financial disappointment that was Dishonored 2 — the pitch for a sequel was turned down.

Following the ‘disappointing’ releases of Dishonored 2 and Prey, Zenimax decided that they didn’t do well because no one buys single player games, a sentiment that one source stated was “dead ass wrong.” This mindset has led to a hard pivot by Zenimax to focus more on multiplayer and live service experiences, with only a few single player games in the pipeline.

On a positive note, it was expressed that we can expect something interesting coming out of Austin within the next 4 years. What that means was left a bit vague, as shortly after it was stressed that the studio is still struggling to figure out how to preserve immersive sim principles in a new format.
 
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ha.. nice.
i was one of the folks caught up in their sales pitch for dishonored 1.. sadly. it was not what i expected at all..
2 was more o the same.
weird cause i thought people didnt see things my way. i guess its the same fake news with great reviews and fans not giving a shit
 
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ha.. nice.
i was one of the folks caught up in their sales pitch for dishonored 1.. sadly. it was not what i expected at all..
2 was more o the same.
weird cause i thought people didnt see things my way. i guess its the same fake news with great reviews and fans not giving a shit
Dishonored 2 wasn't bad but the expansion left a bad taste for me. :(

I never played the new PREY as it was vastly different then the original.
 
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I loved the expansion of Dishonored 2 more than the main game. It wrapped up the story and the role of the pro-protagonist quite nicely. Also the smaller sandbox world and side missions were well designed and very fun to play (your way).

It is just my view, but I think that main reason that Dishonored did not sell well is because they did not provide sufficient challenge for the first play through. You can complete the games on easy and rambo your way through the game with no need to discover your environment to find clever ways to achieve your objectives. So there is no need to upgrade your powers and have satisfaction from using them to overcome challenges.

Compare this to something that Dark Souls, which was designed to provide sufficient challenge to all levels of players and keep them hooked throughout the game. In this case you have to use every single trick in the book to progress well, which provided a reason for upgrading and discovering and learning your environment.
 
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I wondered if the poor sales of Dishonored 2 and Prey were partly a marketing screw up. Perhaps it was just me, but they didn't seem to have the usual build up - it just seemed that they quite suddenly appeared one day.

I think with big budget games, they often spend as much on the marketing as they do on development.
 
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Man, I'd love a follow up to Arx Fatalis. Never gonna happen though. (Dark Messiah was ok but not really a proper sequel imo)
 
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I haven't watched this documentary but I probably will at some point.

In my view Dishonored 1 was an okay game even though I wasn't a fan of the setting at all. DH 2 was in my view a better game for some reason, not great or very good but good. The DH 2 DLC was decent. I like the gameplay styles but the setting for me held the series back from being good (just my own personal preference on the setting, maybe the dullness of the colors had an influence?).

Prey was great, one of my favorite games ever. The setting, atmosphere, immersion, and story are all great and very well done, and the gameplay was good. Just watching the first section of the game (on a let's play video, for example) is really a good way to determine if you'd be grabbed by it. I tried the Prey DLC Moonbase I think it was called, and I disliked it so much that I stopped playing it not long after starting it, as it was just "replaying" the same areas over and over (via unique design).
 
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Talking about marketing, Prey is now released on GoG and discounted as part of their large summer sale.

True.
https://www.pcgamer.com/prey-goes-drm-free-on-gog-and-is-currently-very-cheap/
Arkane's 2017 Prey reboot has just hit GOG, and in-keeping with the mandate of that storefront, it's DRM free. The dread-inducing immersive sim is also extraordinarily cheap for a limited time: it's $9 (or AU$13.49) for the standard edition.
Thanks to PCG just learned that synonym for mediocrity is what I marked above.
 
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Talking about marketing, Prey is now released on GoG and discounted as part of their large summer sale.
For that low price I just might give it a try.:)

The Moonbase DLC doesn't interest me at all though.
 
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Well I'm happy:
https://wccftech.com/dishonored-series-isnt-actually-on-hold-says-arkane/
Dishonored fans can rejoice, for their beloved franchise isn't technically on hold, according to Arkane Lyon Game Director Dinga Bakaba.
So, I don’t think there was a decision to put Dishonored series on hold. I think the initial quote was over interpreted.
Either way, according to Bakaba, Arkane wouldn't just go back to Emily and Corvo as their storyline is done in their opinion.
 
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All I read is PR malarkey.:lol:

No matter how you read/interpret it's dead/resting.

Maybe in a few years we'll know what that secret project is.

It just wont be Dishonored anymore after that terrible expansion ending.
 
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