Arkane Lyon is still working on Marvel’s Blade, but it’s doing it with the Sword of Damocles dangling over the heads of its 217 employees.
According to French outlet Le Monde, Florange Law, adopted in 2014 in France, requires companies with more than 1,000 employees to search for a buyer for at least three months before closing a studio. According to the report, the search for a buyer for the Dishonored 2 and Deathloop developer began in the summer, meaning the deadline is imminent — November 13.
The studio was informed of Microsoft’s decision on July 16, shortly after new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma announced closure or spinoff plans for Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory, and Undead Labs — Ninja Theory was closed while the other studios went independent, taking their franchises with them. Over 1,600 jobs were affected across Microsoft's gaming business at the time. More have followed, and more are set to follow still.
According to Le Monde, a union rep said that "negotiations on the redundancy plan are going badly” at Arkane Lyon, which Microsoft picked up when it bought Bethesda owner ZeniMax in 2021. The worker unions are currently trying to buy more time "to give the discussions a better chance of reaching a conclusion."
“Several forms of takeover are being considered,” according to the report, which suggests buyers are interested in the immersive sim studio. That’s why the union is pushing for more time and is “hopeful of saving the studio and its jobs.”
Microsoft didn’t respond directly to the report but sent the following statement: "We continue to explore different options for Arkane as part of the ongoing French consultation process. We are keeping the works council and employees informed and are actively seeking a partner to support the next phase of development and enable the commercialization of the project."
An internal document seen by Le Monde stated that "the implementation of the project [for the complete and definitive cessation of the company's activities] is scheduled to begin at the end of 2026 and should extend into the first quarter of 2027."
The union is currently pushing for re-employment of affected staff to other studios within Xbox. "The redundancy plan must be adapted to the video game market where, currently, the prospects for returning to work are extremely limited,” said the rep.
Negotiations are ongoing until October 30, but the union hasn’t ruled out seeing Microsoft in court. “This is in complete contradiction with what we've been told in the Works Council for years about the company's financial situation," the rep said. "Microsoft is looking to divest itself of Arkane, even though the studio is doing well, in order to save money and improve the profitability of its short-term investments."
Through all of this is concern that Marvel's Blade may never see the light of day. IGN understands that prior to the layoffs in July, Blade was on track for a reveal early next year and a release in the fourth quarter of 2027. IGN has asked Marvel Games for comment but it has failed to respond.
Blade was announced in December 2023 with a reveal trailer, but we've seen nothing of it since. In June, Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard was quoted as saying he'd recently seen what Arkane Lyon was cooking up and was impressed. "I'm not at liberty to say when [we'll see more]," Howard teased at the time, "but I saw some stuff just yesterday [on May 21] and the folks at Arkane [Studios, the developers] are doing a really, really great job."