Microsoft gives Arkane Lyon one more month to find a buyer before shutting it down

Microsoft gave Arkane Lyon one more month to find a buyer before potentially closing the French studio behind Dishonored and Deathloop, while the fate of the nearly finished Marvel's Blade remains unclear.

Arkane Lyon, the French studio behind Dishonored and Deathloop, just got a short but real reprieve. After Microsoft said back in July that it was looking to divest or close the studio, the deadline the company had to decide the team's fate, originally November 13, just got pushed back by a month. Microsoft confirmed it directly to PC Gamer: "We have extended the consultation period by one additional month as we explore options."

The whole process exists because of France's Florange Law, which forces companies with more than a thousand employees to look for a buyer before shutting down a unit in a way that would mean mass layoffs. That legal requirement is what's keeping alive the chance someone else picks up Arkane Lyon before Microsoft just turns off the lights. In total, 217 people work there and are waiting on the outcome.

The detail that stings the most for anyone following this is what happens to Marvel's Blade. The game was announced back at The Game Awards 2023, and according to a union representative who spoke to French newspaper Le Monde, it's reportedly nearing the end of production. The same source didn't hold back, calling it a "monumental waste" if the game never saw release after all that work.

Microsoft itself, speaking to Le Monde, said it's "actively seeking a partner to support the next phase of development and enable the commercialization" of the project. In other words, even if Arkane Lyon as a studio doesn't make it, the company seems set on saving the game itself, likely by handing the project to another team or publisher.

Bloomberg's Jason Schreier offered a somewhat more hopeful read, saying there are "multiple paths" being explored to save the studio and that he'd be surprised if Arkane Lyon actually shuts down. Is that worth banking on? Schreier has a strong track record on this beat, so the comment carries weight, but industry optimism from a journalist's sources is not the same as an official decision.

In practice, this extra month doesn't lower the anxiety for the team, it just kicks the real decision further down the road. For anyone who played Dishonored or Deathloop and knows how much care this studio puts into its design and visual language, watching it dangle over a corporate portfolio call is just rough. Blade being treated as a bargaining chip in a sale negotiation, after nearly reaching the finish line, says a lot about how this industry handles years of finished work.