Le Monde: Details on Microsoft’s Desire to Shutter Arkane Lyon

"Incoherent" and "Deplorable"

• Industry
• News

Genghis Husameddin

50 minutes ago

Become a Member

Join Now!

Per a report by Le Monde, Microsoft is looking to shutter Arkane, the some 217-man studio in Lyon, France. Management had informed the employees on 16 July, a decision coming from “the very top” (the “great reset”) and has wrought anger in a decision that is “deemed incoherent” per a head, anonymised as Simon, from the populaire écologique et sociale (“NUPES”) union.

This report—translated through Lingvanex hosted by Vivaldi—is an additive to the earlier reports of Microsoft divesting from the developer by potentially spinning off the company thru consultations and another investor. Arkane Lyon has little room for margins here on what path they want to take, too—because on 13 November, the consultation period ends and the developer will have to decide what becomes of their operation.

Simon along with the travailleureuses du jeu vidéo (“STJV”) union says that “Microsoft no longer gives us a choice” and that Arkane hopes to buy more time to “give the discussions a better chance of coming to an end”. Extensions are being sought and above all else, NUPES is looking for favourable outcomes for Arkane’s employees via means of shuffling them through other parts of Microsoft and Xbox.

“How can we justify this when Microsoft’s annual net profits are in the hundreds of billions of dollars?”, says a representative from the STJV, dismayed by Microsoft’s lack of transparency during this process. Simon also added that “We are a collateral victim of Xbox’s change in strategy”, summarising the affairs as a form of “cannibalisation”.

Microsoft did not respond to questions from Le Monde, and their full statement can be found on the report along with additional details from both unions on Arkane’s precarious predicament. Update – Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier has commented on the recent story, sharing the following statement:

Let me share some positive news for a change: Despite all the gloomy headlines today, my understanding is that there are multiple paths actively being explored that would save Arkane Lyon. Anything can happen during negotiations, but at this point I’d be surprised if the studio is shut down.

Bloomberg’s Jason Schrier

Arkane Lyon is known to players from all over the globe through popular titles such as ‘Dark Messiah of Might and Magic’, ‘Deathloop’, and ‘Dishonored’ (I am fighting not to put a “u” in that). The company is actively developing their next title, based on Marvel’s ‘Blade’ franchise, but it finds itself in turmoil as Microsoft’s Xbox seeks to purge thousands of roles in its gaming division in words that Xbox CEO Asha Sharma describes as a business that “is not healthy”.

Multiple studios have been impacted, with companies like Double Fine Productions returning to independence and historied UK developers like Ninja Theory seemingly being set to close as deals fall through. The tech conglomerate continues to cut jobs towards its 3,200 number target through January, adding to the wasteland of job cuts and studio closures to the game development industry we’ve seen this decade.

Enjoying DayOne? Do us a favour, and make us a ‘Preferred Source on Google‘ – that way, you’ll only be delivered more gaming coverage from our team.

Want to get involved?

There’s plenty of ways to become a part of DayOne.

Head over and let us know your thoughts in the DayOne Forums, the perfect place to chat about games if you’re a little more old-school and prefer things in a longform form, and if you mainly play on PC, join our Steam Community to connect with other members and maybe make some new friends!

Prefer the chaos of live and fast moving conversation? Come and make some noise in the lively DayOne Community Discord Server instead. If you’re rocking a DayOne Membership, both places give special access for our supporters, and you’ll unlock a ton of exclusive content, just for you.