While last week saw rumors circulating about Arkane Studios’ closure and Marvel’s Blade potentially facing cancellation, it seems that the situation has changed at Xbox. Windows Central reports that development on the latter won’t cease but that’s not all. If you spotted this legal notice dated June 30th, revealing that MachineGames’ director Jerk Gustafsson is now president of Arkane, it seems restructuring is underway.
How this will ultimately affect the studio remains to be seen, but MachineGames is allegedly safe. The success of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has seemingly assured its continued existence, with Xbox reportedly keen on investing in the studio. Not only is a TV show allegedly in the works (with Amazon’s Fallout TV producers involved), but Wolfenstein 3 is also in the works.
It will reportedly complement the show, and given how Xbox is trying to capitalize on its transmedia properties, these moves make sense. When we’ll hear about it is a different story altogether, but if rumors about mass layoffs on July 6th are true, we’ll at least learn more about Arkane’s new structure.
As for Marvel’s Blade, it’s allegedly planned to be revealed this year with a release targeting 2027. It’s apparently pretty far along, though we’ve seen next to nothing from it since its announcement in December 2023 (not counting Todd Howard’s praise).
