Ubisoft has reportedly submitted a bid to buy Arkane Lyon, the Dishonored and Marvel's Blade developer, from Xbox, with at least three companies making offers for the French studio.
For players waiting on Marvel's Blade, the stakes are straightforward: its developer is trying to secure a future outside Microsoft while work on the game continues. Negotiations remain at an early stage.
Arkane's search for a buyer runs into December
The sale process follows Microsoft's move to divest Arkane during its broader Xbox restructuring. Because the studio is based in Lyon, France, French labor rules required Microsoft to search for a potential buyer as part of the process surrounding its proposed closure.
Microsoft extended the search beyond the previous November 13 deadline and is now exploring options ahead of a December deadline. The other bidders have not been publicly identified.
Marvel's Blade is the project on the line
Marvel's Blade was unveiled at The Game Awards in 2023. It's a single-player action-adventure set in France, following the human-vampire hybrid Blade as he hunts vampires. The latest reported release estimate places it within the next year or two.
A sale would provide a route for Arkane to complete that project. Development on the game continues amid uncertainty surrounding the studio.
Lyon's previous games include Dishonored 2 and Deathloop. It is a separate team from Arkane Austin, which Microsoft closed in 2024 following the release of the co-op vampire-hunting game Redfall in 2023. Austin's earlier work included Prey and the original Dishonored.
That original Dishonored arrived in October 2012, developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It put players in the role of Corvo Attano, an imperial bodyguard framed for the Empress's murder, in the plague-ridden city of Dunwall.
Its first-person stealth-action design combines supernatural powers with choices that shape mission outcomes. For players revisiting that side of Arkane's work, the Dishonored guide collection provides a companion to returning to Dunwall.
Ubisoft is restructuring, too
Ubisoft's interest comes during a reset of its own. Its studios have faced layoffs, and multiple projects have been cancelled, including the Prince of Persia remake. The publisher has also established a Tencent-backed subsidiary focused on major franchises such as Assassin's Creed.
Those changes give the bid a complicated backdrop: the prospective buyer is also reorganizing its development business.
Elsewhere in Xbox's restructuring, studios have already taken different paths outside Microsoft's ownership:
- Double Fine has become independent.
- Compulsion Games has also become independent.
- Undead Labs has gone independent and signed a publishing agreement with an unidentified company for State of Decay 3.
Double Fine subsequently made layoffs of its own after becoming independent.
For help with the games already in your library while Arkane's sale process continues, explore the gaming guides hub.
