Arkane Lyon’sBladehas largely gone quiet since it wasrevealed at The Game Awardsin 2023. It got a lot of people very excited – Blade is a fan favourite Marvel character, and a game based on the legendary vampire hunter is going to feel like a perfect pitch to a lot of gamers.
But there were some concerns that Blade being a third-person action game and being based on a popular IP would meanArkane would have to cater to a broader audience, diluting its immersive sim expertise in favour of something with more mainstream appeal.
Right now, we don’t know much about Blade yet beyond its reveal trailer, because it hasn’t resurfaced at any showcases since. We know it’s likelyaiming for a 2027 launch. We also received asmall look at Blade’s character designsandconcept art. That’s really it. This lack of information became especially concerning after Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs, which led to project cancellations like Rare’sEverwildandPerfect Dark, as well as several studio closures.
Arkane Isn’t Necessarily Safe From Future Layoffs
Arkane’s already been hit by Microsoft layoffs once before, whenArkane Austin was closedafter the dismal performance ofRedfall, another vampire Arkane game. Understandably, considering the studio’s long silence since announcing Blade, it’s hard not to feel a little antsy.
Imsims have a hardcore audience, but don’t always sell well, which means Arkane might be at risk of closure even if its gamesdosell well. That is, after all, similar towhat happened with Tango Gameworks, which was closed alongside Arkane Austin – it madea beloved game that lots of people played, and still got shut down because it didn’t reach an arbitrary target.
Thankfully, Blade has now shown signs of life, though those signs have been disappointing. It seems that Bladeentered full production at the end of 2024, meaning that it likely had a very long pre-production phase – not necessarily a bad thing, but it does seem we won’t be seeing the finished game for several years, even if its development is going well.
Blade Could Be My Perfect Dark Replacement
I, for one, am taking this as a sign to be relieved. No Microsoft-owned studio is safe, as we’ve now learned, even if their projects look promising from the outside – despite having raked in record revenues in 2024, Microsoft will abandon its studios to increase profitability for shareholdersor put even more money into misguided AI technologies.
Out of all the cancelled projects to come from Microsoft’s layoffs, I (like many others) am particularly upset about Perfect Dark. The game’s developmentmay or may not have been as smooth as it looked to observers, but its premise was solid, and its vision, had it pulled it off, might have been something truly special.
Blade, in theory, ticks off a lot of boxes that Perfect Dark did. Imsimmy vibes, slick movement, tactical gameplay. This is all speculation, of course, considering we got a gameplay trailer for Perfect Dark and haven’t yet for Blade, but this is what you would expect from a game about a sneaky and very cool vampire.
Blade and Perfect Dark were never fighting for the same niche, but they do at least seem to be similar in ways, so Blade at least being fully in production now is helping soothe the smarting of Perfect Dark’s loss. Hopefully, it doesn’t gothe way of Black PantherorMonolith’s Wonder Woman game.
