While the previous weekend saw plenty of games being announced and unveiled, Arkane Lyon’s Marvel’s Blade was conspicuous by its absence, especially during the XBOX showcase. This has seemingly caused quite a bit of speculation regarding the fate of the project, with some believing that it might have gotten quietly cancelled. Responding to a post questioning its status, lead concept artist and assistant art director Jean-Luc Monnet has put these speculations to rest.
When a social media user tagged Arkane, asking if the studio was “still alive” (via machine translation), Monnet responded with a gif from Breaking Bad, featuring protagonist Walter White simply saying: “Let us cook.”
Marvel’s Blade was announced all the way back in December 2023. Since then, however, the studio has been quiet about the project, aside from confirming that it had “just begun development” at the time. The only indication we’ve seen that the project might still be in development, aside from Monnet’s recent post, was another social media post by co-creative and art director Sebastien Mitton, where he showed off a few pieces of concept art from the project.
Interestingly, the LinkedIn profile of Marvel’s Blade’s campaign director, Dana Nightingale, has indicated that the project has been in the works since January 2022. Considering the fact that the studio admitted to starting development in 2023, however, it is likely that the team spent over a year in the pre-production phase of the project.
In the meantime, rumors have indicated that Marvel’s Blade is internally expected to be launched in 2027. Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grub said at the time that this timeline is just an estimate, and marks the earliest point at which Arkane Lyon believes the project will be ready.
Games developed by Arkane are known for their unique gameplay mechanics that often rely heavily on the tropes and conventions of the immersive sim genre. While the studio has worked on several cult classic projects throughout its time, such as 2002’s Arx Fatalis and 2006’s Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, it started getting broader recognition for its game designing prowess with the 2012 release of Dishonored. Since its formation, Arkane Lyon has gone on to work on many other games and expansions, including 2017’s Dishonored: Death of the Outsider and 2019’s Wolfenstein: Youngblood, the latter of which was co-developed by the studio alongside MachineGames.
The last major project developed by Arkane Lyon was 2021’s Deathloop, which was released on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The title put players in the shoes of Colt, who happens to be stuck in a strange time loop on the island of Blackreef. Deathloop makes use of some light roguelite mechanics in the way its progression systems work, and encourages players to experiment quite heavily in how they approach its many levels, with the ultimate goal of taking down 8 “Visionaries”.
Deathloop also included an interesting multiplayer “invasion” system, where players could take on the role of rival assassin Julianna to hunt down other players who were making their way through the campaign.
