Arkane Lyon Has Until November 13 to Find a Buyer or Close
Microsoft's Arkane Lyon studio has until November 13 to find a buyer or face closure, GameSpot reports. The French studio is still working on Marvel's Blade, an action game first revealed in December 2023.
Arkane Lyon is known for Dishonored and Deathloop. Microsoft took ownership of the studio when it bought the ZeniMax group in 2021. The company now wants to shut the Lyon site, and that plan has put staff on edge.
On July 16, Arkane management told employees that Microsoft planned to close the studio. Le Monde reports that 217 jobs are threatened. The move came after Asha Sharma, general manager of Xbox, announced on July 6 that about 1,600 positions would be cut across the division.
Sharma also announced plans to abandon four studios: Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs. According to IGN, Ninja Theory has closed. Compulsion Games, Double Fine and Undead Labs have gone independent and taken their franchises with them.
The November 13 date is tied to a French rule. The Florange Law, adopted in 2014, requires companies with more than 1,000 employees to spend three months searching for a buyer before they can close a site. The deadline marks the end of consultations with Arkane Studios' Social and Economic Committee, the body that represents staff in French workplace talks, Gematsu reports. Negotiations continue until October 30, according to IGN.
Microsoft says it is actively looking for a partner. The company wants that partner to support the next phase of development and to help bring the project to market, which means releasing and selling it. IGN also reports that an internal document schedules the full end of Arkane Lyon's activities for late 2026, running into the first quarter of 2027.
GameSpot reports that development is on track for a new reveal in early 2027, followed by a release in the fourth quarter of 2027. In June, The Verge reported that the internal ship date had slipped to late 2027, that the game was running over budget, and that Microsoft was weighing whether to cancel it. Bethesda Game Studios head Todd Howard said that same month that he had seen Marvel's Blade on May 21 and that Arkane Lyon was "doing a really great job."
The union representing Arkane Lyon staff wants affected workers re-employed at other Xbox studios. It has not ruled out taking Microsoft to court. A union representative has said the talks over the redundancy plan are going badly, IGN reports.
For now the search runs on a fixed clock. Talks close on October 30, the consultation period ends on November 13, and the studio's staff are still building the game.
