Blade director reassures struggling followers with soothing phrases: 'Please be affected person, it will likely be a particular recreation'
Arkane revealed Blade at The Recreation Awards 2023, PC Gamer affiliate editor Ted Litchfield misplaced his gourd, and never a complete lot has occurred since then. The silence has gone on lengthy sufficient to make PCG’s Fraser Brown nervous: Its no-show at Xbox Video games Showcase this summer season “makes me surprise if there have been some main highway bumps,” he wrote earlier this yr, noting that troubled growth can be significantly unhealthy information for a studio that is already very clearly underneath the gun.
With Blade additionally failing to place in an look on the recently-passed Recreation Awards 2025, some of us are getting antsy. The plaintive pleading of 1 such fan led Arkane co-creative director Dinga Bakaba to pop in on X with some soothing reassurance.
“The group is tough at work, everyone seems to be tremendous proud and outdoing themselves,” Bakaba wrote. “Please be affected person, it will likely be a particular recreation and all of us hope it will likely be assembly the excessive requirements that we set for ourselves and for you all.”
In contrast to a few of my PC Gamer compadres, I am not tremendous enthusiastic concerning the studio that gave us Dishonored, Prey, and different sensible video games being converted to a licensed Marvel venture. However I am additionally assured that if any studio could make a licensed Marvel recreation genuinely deep and attention-grabbing, it is Arkane—and particularly with a personality like Blade, who would not actually have to suit into the usual superhero mildew: In Arkane’s fingers, Blade might successfully be the Bloodlines 3 we’re not going to get on this lifetime.
However the challenges going through Arkane are well-known. Prey, regardless of being top-of-the-line immersive sims ever made, was not a giant gross sales success, and Redfall bombed badly; Microsoft closed Arkane Austin in 2024, leaving solely its Lyon nonetheless working.
Additionally regarding is Microsoft’s nearly fanatical dedication to AI above all, which can have contributed to this yr’s gaming division layoffs: It mentioned at the beginning of 2025 that it was spending $80 billion on the know-how this yr. PC Gamer senior editor Wes Fenlon would not have an optimistic view of the long run in that regard, writing in his look again at Microsoft’s “yr of disgrace” that he expects it “to put off extra recreation builders and cancel extra video games because it tries to pump AI bubble income out of leisure.”
It is a robust spot, and I’ve a tough time imagining a superb final result for Arkane if Blade is something lower than a success—so I certain hope Bakaba is correct.