Arkane Studios was created back in 1999, now with two decades of work behind them, the studio is looking for their next big project. Of course, looking back, the studio had been known for working and helping develop video game titles that are focused around single-player narratives. Now having been purchased by Bethesda and still crafting up video game titles, could we see the studio start developing their own games with a multiplayer component?
If you’re not familiar with the development studio name, you may know the company for their line of video game projects. For instance, the studio had developed the Dishonored franchise along with Prey. Since then, the studio had mainly helped or co-develop video game projects under Bethesda but that doesn’t mean the studio is out from crafting up their own projects to release. In a recent interview, the studio director was asked about bringing out a multiplayer game.
VG247 had the opportunity to speak with the studio director Romuald Capron and asked if there was interest in bringing out a multiplayer game. After all, prior to being purchased by Bethesda, the studio had been working on a project with Valve that was taking the single-player narrative story and blending it with multiplayer sections. This game was called The Crossing and it never saw the light of day.
With that said, there are some elements that would make it difficult to craft an Arkane style game with multiplayer in mind. The biggest is the potential for players to lose out on the game immersion. Rather than being your world and adventure, you would suddenly be sharing the game with other players and that might not always work out that well for everyone.
“We have always been passionate about single-player because it’s really consistent with the idea of immersion because you create your own story. You’re totally immersed. At that point, we were saying, if we bring in another player, of course, it creates interesting things, but it can break your immersion, because someone is going to jump in front of you or tell you things you don’t want, and suddenly it’s getting out from your own adventure.”
Romuald Capron
However, Romuald Capron went on to say that the studio is not against multiplayer and didn’t sign off on only producing single-player video game titles. Perhaps in the future, if the developer can find a way to balance a multiplayer game with a high level of single-player story-driven detail than we could see something unique from Arkane compared to some of their previous works.