The battle to save Arkane Lyon from being closed continues to rage on, and now new details may have come to light about Microsoft’s baffling treatment of the studio.
The news is from STJV, the French union that is fighting to help save Arkane Lyon from being shut down entirely. You can find an English version of their article here, but be warned, the translation is rather rough.
According to STJV, Microsoft/Xbox put a 19-month hiring freeze on Arkane Lyon, which resulted in delays and increased costs. STJW does not say when this freeze took place or why it occurred, but they claim that Microsoft/Xbox used these delays and increased costs as justification to get rid of Arkane Lyon. If true, that’s some truly batshit logic.
STJV also argues that Arkane’s accounts don’t actually reflect its true contributions, stating that the studio’s previous games have collectively sold tens of millions of copies but are absent from the company’s results. It’s unclear exactly what STJV means here, because it provides no financial breakdown or explicitly identifies which company’s accounts it is referring to.
That combined sales figure presumably includes older games such as Dishonored and Dishonored 2, since Lyon has only released one new game under Microsoft’s ownership: Deathloop. The original Dishonored arrived in 2012, followed by Dishonored 2 in 2016 and Death of the Outsider in 2017. Microsoft didn’t complete its purchase of ZeniMax, which included Arkane, until March 2021.
If STJV is referring to Microsoft’s results, then the argument is a little odd when taken at face value. Sales made before the acquisition obviously wouldn’t count as Microsoft’s revenue. Those games have continued selling since, but with their launches several years behind them, I’d expect that income to be considerably lower than during their initial release periods. Their lifetime sales therefore don’t tell us how much money they’ve brought in under Xbox.
That doesn’t make their earlier success irrelevant, of course. A studio’s history of making games people want to buy should still count for something when deciding whether it has a future. But it’s a different argument from how much revenue Microsoft has actually received. Deathloop, meanwhile, launched after the acquisition, although its announced milestone of five million players doesn’t tell us how many copies it sold, particularly given its availability through Game Pass and PlayStation Plus.
The union could instead be referring to some odd accounting within the wider group. A bit like the recent discussion around The Coalition’s reported $500 million budget, which includes work supporting other studios and Microsoft’s branch of Unreal Engine. Costs can end up attached to one studio even when the benefits extend well beyond its own games, making the numbers difficult to interpret from the outside.
Perhaps Arkane Lyon’s development costs sit on its own books while revenue from its games is recorded elsewhere within Bethesda or ZeniMax. That could help explain STJV’s complaint that the studio is being treated as a cost centre without its contributions being properly recognised. But that’s me trying to make sense of the statement, rather than something the union explains. Without knowing which accounts it means or how those costs and revenues are allocated, we’re left guessing at a fairly important part of its argument.
On top of all this, STJW also argues that closing Arkane and cancelling Blade would “probably” cost more than just finishing the game. No figures are included in this argument, so this may just be STJW guestimating costs.
It’s also possible Microsoft and Xbox would have to pay some sort of fee to Disney if Marvel’s Blade is cancelled, but that’s purely speculation on my behalf. Many contracts of this type have clauses in case of situations like this.
As for Arkane Lyon’s current state, the deadline for Microsoft/Xbox’s final decision has been extended, and there are reports claiming that multiple other companies have expressed interest in purchasing Arkane Lyon, including Ubisoft.
