If you remember, in late September, Xbox announced another step in its major reset that will see the next Halo game be developed by Activision, rather than Halo Studios. As part of that announcement, it was revealed that Undead Labs found a new publisher. Ninja Theory, on the other hand, will seemingly be closed as two separate deals to sell the studio fell through. Arkane’s fate was uncertain at the time, but more recently, a French report claims that it has until November to find a buyer, or face closure itself.
Le Monde cites a union representative from Printemps Ecologique, Arkane’s representative trade union, who said that several takeover options are being considered as Microsoft continues to look for a new partner for the studio. France’s Florange Law requires companies with at least 1,000 employees with an intention to shut down to spend three months looking for a potential buyer. In this specific case, Arkane has until 13 November to find a buyer before it will have to close, with approximately 217 jobs at risk.
It’s worth noting that Arkane previously announced that it was working on a game featuring Marvel’s Blade. In the report, the union rep says that the game is already “nearing the end” of production, so for it to be cancelled at this stage, “it would be a monumental waste – artistically, humanly and commercially”, according to machine translation.
On the flip side, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg said that shutting down a game studio based in France is very expensive, owing to labour laws there requiring “an extended severance period”. It’s not clear what this extended period is, but with Xbox cutting Arkane loose to cut costs, the last thing the Microsoft videogames division wants is to end up incurring more costs instead.
(Source: Le Monde, Jason Schreier / Bluesky)
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