Dishonored is 'resting,' Arkane lead designer says

The Dishonored games were great—not perfect by any means, but very much the kind of thing I'd love to see more of. Sadly, that's not going to happen anytime soon, and may not happen at all, as Arkane lead designer Ricardo Bare told VG247 that the series may or may not be back. 

"I can’t say definitively what might happen down the road, anything could happen, but [Dishonored] is resting for now," Bare said.   

The good news is that if Dishonored is finished, it was at least given a proper send-off in Death of the Outsider, which wrapped up the trilogy conclusively and saw a new day dawn on the Empire of the Isles. Even more importantly, Bare said that regardless of what happens with Dishonored specifically, Arkane remains committed to making that kind of game.

"The things that are important to us as a studio are coherent, deep world building and environmental storytelling – we’re always going to craft spaces that you feel like you’re visiting, whether it’s Dunwall or Talos 1. It’s just as important a character as the player or the people you meet," he said.

"Then it’s improvisational gameplay – giving players a bunch of cool abilities and tools, then saying, 'You figure it out, you be creative, you own the experience.' And, typically, we stick to first-person, though that’s not a hard rule and we might try other things from time to time." 

Bare said nothing about what Arkane might get up to next, but on the off-chance that they're looking for suggestions, I think Arx Fatalis 2 would be a big hit.

Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.

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