Microsoft’s closure of Arkane Austin in Could 2024 left 96 builders out of labor – amongst them studio head Harvey Smith, whose storied profession spans Deus Ex, Dishonored, and Prey. Now, after a two-year quiet interval, Smith is able to reveal his subsequent enterprise: Black Pony Immersive, a brand new studio co-founded with former Arkane colleague Ben Horne.
“Ben and I chose the worst time in historical past [to start a game studio],” Smith tells GamesIndustry.biz. “As a result of, you already know, what else are you going to do?”
Horne, who served as manufacturing director on Redfall, echoes this sentiment: “Harvey and I spent numerous time, in a very horrible setting for fundraising, speaking to many various teams about tips on how to elevate cash. We turned down some offers that simply did not really feel proper. You understand, ‘hey, for those who guys are prepared to possibly take into consideration this NFT blockchain state of affairs…’ As a lot [as we wanted] to get this off the floor, let’s attempt to do it the proper manner.”
Whereas Smith has beforehand held director roles at Arkane and Halfway, that is the first time he has arrange his own firm, one thing he says has at all times been a purpose. “It simply took some time to get there.”
So why now, in what Smith acknowledges is such a troublesome sport enterprise panorama? “When issues are going fairly properly, your impetus to do one thing loopy could be very low,” Smith explains. “It is solely when issues explode that [you become willing to take the leap]. Like, you already know what? We might do it higher than that.”
If there’s any silver lining to be taken from Arkane Austin’s closure, Smith says, it is this: “There’s so many classes we have realized. We have endured these huge hardships collectively.”
So what does “doing it higher” really appear like? A part of the reply, Smith says, is minimising top-down interference: “We do not have to hunt a lot approval from anybody else, and that makes us very nimble.”
He additionally cites the significance of health-care advantages, even for a comparatively small startup, “as a result of that is the United States, the place that is not a given.” (Black Pony’s workers work remotely, however all of its full-time staff are primarily based in the United States, Horne clarifies, with help from contractors and exterior builders round the world.)
Greater than something, although, Smith is concentrated on the worth of retaining a group collectively. “I do not suppose the individuals closing the studios perceive but what they’ve misplaced,” he says.
Darkish horses
Black Pony, which opened its doorways final August and now has a headcount of 26, has been a chance to reunite some members of that previous group – together with those that’d since discovered jobs elsewhere. (Horne himself went to Meta-owned Twisted Pixel after Arkane’s closure, the place he labored on Marvel’s Deadpool VR, however left in August 2025, a couple of months earlier than it too was closed down by its mother or father firm.)
Not everybody at Black Pony is an Arkane veteran. “There are some are fully new faces, those that I’ve revered and liked from the indie scene for a few years – like our artwork director, who we’ll discuss finally,” he says. “However many of those individuals, for those who go on my Instagram, you may discover photos of us hanging out, after these final days at Arkane.”
Amongst the long-time collaborators on workers at Black Pony are Ricardo Naked, Smith’s inventive companion since they first labored collectively as designers on Deus Ex, and Monte Martinez, previously of Ion Storm, 2K Marin, and WolfEye, who Smith calls “the secret weapon of the immersive-sim world”.
Speaking about Black Pony’s recruitment, Smith says, “We pulled individuals out of main firms, as a result of they have been sad the place they have been, or simply as a result of they have been enthusiastic about the concept.”
Which brings us to the query of what that concept is, precisely. Smith will not be drawn on particulars of the sport these individuals have assembled to make, past saying that “we had the pitch earlier than we had the firm.” However there is not any thriller about what style it will be in. The clue, after all, is true there in the title of the firm: Black Pony Immersive.
Smith outlines the hallmarks of the video games he loves most, and is greatest at making: “You are barely underpowered, however you might have some inventive instruments. You’ve gotten an exploration-based panorama, player-driven tempo. Single-player, narrative-rich… Whether or not you name that an motion RPG or FPS-RPG hybrid or an immersive sim, no matter.”
Trying again on his previous video games that haven’t gone so properly, Smith reckons it comes all the way down to straying from this magic method. “Once we’ve stayed in that lane, the outcomes have been significantly better, and we get a lot nearer to one thing that we really love.”