The gaming industry has recently been plagued with several layoffs as many giant organizations, including Unity Technologies and Riot Games, let go of a significant percentage of their workforce. On the other hand, Arkane is currently planning to expand its team for the upcoming title Marvel’s Blade.
Arkane Studios is a French game studio that is credited with creating popular franchises like Dishonored and Prey. Hence, with their reputation at an all-time high, Marvel gave the Lyon-based developers complete rights to work on the upcoming vampiric superhero video game. As a result, Arkane is looking for new and capable employees in a market that has been rocked by several layoffs.
Some people mentioned it in the comments and out of modesty I hesitated to say but yes, we have some open positions in Lyon including some that aren’t yet on the website. If you have been hit by the recent layoffs, my DMs are open and I’ll make sure you are on top of the pile. https://t.co/jPGO8xYJcO pic.twitter.com/GO9dTntq0L
— Dinga Bakaba (@DBakaba) January 29, 2024
Recently, Dinga Bakaba, the co-creative director at Arkane Lyon, took to his official X (formerly Twitter) page to reveal that the French studio is increasing its workforce. He even mentioned that people should apply regardless of the job listing as some of the required positions haven’t been put up on the website as of yet. Moreover, Bakaba encouraged the recent lay-off victims to contact him for these new jobs.
This isn’t the first time there have been reports of the studio behind Redfall increasing its workforce. Last year, the French studio’s LinkedIn page revealed that there was an increment in the workforce. We believe Arkane may be employing more staff to accelerate Blade development while continuing to improve Redfall.
Is Blade Arkane’s ticket to glory after the Redfall fiasco?
Despite the success of Dishonored and Prey, Arkane fell from glory after the failure of Redfall. The first-person vampire shooter was the most ambitious project for the French studio. However, it received a lot of criticism for being buggy and having uninspiring gameplay, among other negatives.
Following the Redfall fiasco, Marvel’s Blade gave the Lyon-based studio a chance to return to its former glory with another vampire-themed game. While the game was officially revealed at The Game Awards 2023, it is based on the Marvel Comics character Blade. However, Arkane has confirmed that the game would feature an original storyline while taking inspiration from the comics.
This game has been under development since the release of Deathloop in 2021 with Dinga Bakaba leading the project. Despite it being another vampire game, Arkane is going for a third-person perspective instead of the first-person in Redfall. Moreover, the French studio would be teaming up with Bethesda, who would be publishing this upcoming Marvel game.
Arkane or Bethesda is yet to announce an official release date for Marvel’s Blade. So, fans might have to wait for a few years for it to hit the shelves. Aside from this upcoming video game, this vampire hunter would also make his Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) debut with a movie featuring Mahershala Ali in 2025.
