Overview
- This week, Raphaël Colantonio and Harvey Smith revealed on a Devs Play YouTube playthrough that Dishonored grew out of two competing Arkane pitches for Thief 4 and a Blade Runner game.
- Bethesda approached the studio when Arkane was financially strained and offered the chance to work on either Thief 4 or a Blade Runner title, prompting Arkane to split into two internal teams.
- Colantonio led the Thief effort and Smith led the Blade Runner effort, and both teams produced concrete prototypes and concept videos during their competition.
- When neither licensing deal moved forward, Bethesda told Arkane to keep the work and call the project Dishonored, with the final game built on the Thief-based foundation but stripped of some inherited mechanics.
- The disclosures add new detail about Arkane’s development process—including a 3D render of the Blade Runner 'Esper' computer and non-human animation tests—and help explain Dishonored’s evolution and the studio’s later personnel shifts.