On 16 July 2026, Arkane Lyon employees were reportedly told that Microsoft intended to close their studio. Three months later, the press puts numbers on the stakes: 217 jobs, and a Marvel’s Blade game that its team says is close to the end of production. The Arkane Lyon closure is not final. It depends on a precise calendar, with 13 November as the key date, and on a buyer nobody has named yet. Everything below is press reporting: neither Microsoft nor the studio has issued a public statement that we could find.
What the press reports about the Arkane Lyon closure
The information comes from Le Monde, which published it on 23 October in its Pixels section, behind a paywall. We could not read it in full. We rely on two outlets that relay it: Vice (Brent Koepp, 23 October) and T-Break (Mufaddal Fakhruddin, same day). Both cite Le Monde.
Here is what these two articles report. Staff were reportedly told on 16 July of Microsoft’s intention. Consultations on the proposed closure end on 13 November 2026. Vice puts 217 jobs at risk; VGC, cited by T-Break, says “over 200”. The two figures overlap: we keep 217, according to Le Monde, without being able to check it elsewhere.
A consultation is not a decision
13 November is not a closure date. T-Break says so plainly: it is the end of the consultation, the legal phase in which staff representatives are heard on the employer’s plan. Vice describes the same thing: a legal step coming to an end, not a halt in activity. Its opening paragraph mentions a closure in November if no buyer is found, but the rest of the text states that no closure date is confirmed.
Documents cited by Le Monde place the start of the closure at the end of 2026, continuing into early 2027. That applies if no takeover succeeds. The reported calendar therefore comes down to two dates: 13 November for the consultation, then the end of the year if the closure goes ahead.
The search for a buyer
According to Vice, French law requires Microsoft to look for a buyer before going ahead. That search reportedly began in mid-summer, alongside talks on support for the affected employees. We cannot cite the legal article: the press we read does not specify it, and we prefer not to guess.
No buyer is named. A union representative, identified only as Simon, told Le Monde that several takeover options were being examined, while judging that negotiations on the redundancy plan are going badly. Unions are asking for more time to find a buyer and negotiate support for staff. VGC mentions “multiple forms of takeover” without the studio’s fate being clear.
On Microsoft’s side, the reported answer is about a partner rather than a cancellation. Translated from Le Monde by T-Break, it says the company is actively seeking “a partner to support the next phase of development” and to enable the commercialisation of the Blade project. Vice adds that Microsoft continues to explore options for the studio.
What would become of Marvel’s Blade
Marvel’s Blade was announced at The Game Awards 2023, VGC recalls via T-Break. No platform or release date has been confirmed since. The game has never been officially cancelled, and the report does not say otherwise: Vice states that nothing confirms a cancellation.
If the Arkane Lyon closure went through, the game would be directly affected. The progress claim comes from the union, not from Microsoft or Arkane. According to the representative cited by Vice, the studio is close to the end of production. Simon judges that seeing the game never release would be “a monumental waste – artistically, humanly, and commercially”. Marvel’s position, as owner of the license, appears in none of the sources we read.
A Lyon studio that matters in Microsoft’s history
The studio whose closure is under consideration made Dishonored in 2012, Dishonored 2 and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, then Deathloop in 2021, its last released game. According to VGC, the studio also helped MachineGames on the Wolfenstein series, and is among the teams hit by Microsoft’s layoffs this year.
The Arkane Lyon closure comes on top of other announcements this week: EA closes BioWare and cancels the next Mass Effect, and Liquid Swords closes despite Samson’s 151,900 copies. On the Arkane side, Harvey Smith launched Black Pony Immersive, a year after Arkane Austin. On 13 November the consultation ends: we will then know whether a buyer is on the table.
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