Former Arkane Austin head Harvey Smith recently announced his new studio, Black Pony Immersive. As the name suggests will be dedicated to making immersive sims in the tradition of Deus Ex and System Shock. It's a commitment that I wholeheartedly support, though as is always the case with this genre, there's a concern over whether such a move is commercially viable.
As it turns out, however, this isn't the first time that Smith has bet the house on an immersive sim and come up trumps. That's exactly what happened with Dishonored—the game that cemented Arkane's reputation as the new guardian of this particular strand of RPG.
Speaking to The Game Business, Smith revealed that Dishonored was a ride or die project, a way out of a mire of fruitless contract work for other developers. "People would come tell us 'Man, to keep the business alive, you better take some contracts...
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