Arkane's next game isn't Dishonored 3, but Marvel fans will want to take note
Let's hope that Marvel's Blade goes down in history as "Arkane's first vampire game".
Arkane — the studio behind the Dishonored series, as well as Prey, Deathloop, and (somewhat more regrettably) this year's underwhelming multiplayer vampire hunting sim Redfall — have announced their next game as part of this year's The Game Awards ceremony. Fans who were holding out hope for Dishonored 3 are unfortunately going to have to wait at least a little longer, but this next project is intriguing nonetheless, as it's an officially licensed tie-in centred on Marvel's Blade.
Rumours of a Blade game began circulating over a year ago, when Ubisoft had to hastily clarify that, despite the appearance of some leaks suggesting it, they weren't attached to the project (thanks to our pals at Eurogamer for that one!). That might have sounded like half-hearted corpo-speak for "we're not allowed to talk about it yet", but it turns out that in this case the rumour mill was half right: everybody's favourite vampire-hunting dhampir really is getting his first stand-alone game since 2002, but it's Arkane behind the wheel. In fairness, the rumours weren't far off: after all, Ubi and Arkane are both best-known for their stealth-based franchises, so Blade feels right at home either way.
Although Arkane have previously picked up existing video game IPs like Prey and Wolfenstein, this will be their first outing working with a licence that originated in other media. Despite the disappointing release of Redfall earlier this year, Arkane have an excellent historic pedigree, especially when it comes to their stealth-based single-player games.
Likewise, Marvel licensed games are a mixed bag, but for every Avengers flop there are low-key hits like Guardians of the Galaxy and Midnight Suns to take the curse off. An Arkane/Marvel collaboration does feel like it's coming out of left-field, but there's every reason to be optimistic if Arkane are given space to do what they do best and give Blade the return to the gaming spotlight he deserves — not to mention, the Arkane vampire game that Redfall deserved to be.
While this isn't the long-awaited news of a Dishonored 3, the latter title was included in a list of planned games that emerged as part of a massive document leak from Bethesda back in September, which gave it a tentative release date in 2024. This isn't a guarantee that the game will even be made, of course, but it does show that future development of the series was still very much on Arkane's roster as of recently, despite the fact that the franchise has officially been "resting" since Death of the Outsider came out in 2018.
Marvel's Blade has no launch window or platforms announced yet, so you'll want to keep tabs on this one for more info.