Arkane Lyon, the studio behind Dishonored and Deathloop, has until 13 November. French newspaper Le Monde reports that by that date Microsoft has to finish the buyer search French law requires, and if no deal is reached the studio will be closed. 217 jobs are at stake. A week after BioWare's closure, it's the second big studio this month that could disappear.
What we know as of 24 October
- The deadline: the consultation period with staff representatives ends on 13 November. In France a company with more than 1,000 employees has to spend three months looking for a buyer for any business it wants to close.
- How talks are going: a union delegate Le Monde calls Simon says negotiations on the job protection plan are "going badly" and that Microsoft isn't leaving the representatives a choice. The union has asked for the deadline to be extended.
- What Microsoft says: it continues "to explore different options for Arkane" and is "actively looking for a partner to support the next phase of development and enable the commercialization of the project".
"The project" is almost certainly Marvel's Blade, which Arkane Lyon has been making since late 2023. Back in June Game Informer reported that Microsoft was considering both closing the studio and cancelling Blade. The game hasn't been officially cancelled, but it has no date either.
What Arkane Lyon has made
Dishonored in 2012, Dishonored 2 in 2016, Deathloop in 2021. This is the studio that built stealth around a teleport spell and turned a day stuck on repeat into a shooter where you decide the order in which to take down eight targets. Arkane Austin, the US team behind Prey and Redfall, was already closed in 2024, so Lyon is all that's left of Arkane.
I think it has a chance, and a better one than BioWare had: Arkane has a Marvel-licensed game in the works, and Microsoft says outright it is looking for a partner to release it. But if no buyer shows up by 13 November and there's no extension, it'll be one more studio that made games everyone else ended up measuring themselves against. How BioWare was shut down earlier this month is in our piece on the studio's history.
Sources
Le Monde, 23.10.2026: the 13 November deadline, 217 jobs, the union delegate's comments and Microsoft's statement. Insider Gaming, 23.10.2026: summary of the Le Monde report. TechPowerUp: the French three-month buyer search rule. Game Informer, 30.06.2026: reports of a possible Blade cancellation. Images: the Dishonored and Deathloop Steam pages.
