It may be awhile before we see another Dishonored game, as developer Arkane Studios has revealed that the series is “resting for now”.
In an interview with VG247 at QuakeCon 2018, Arkane’s lead designer Ricardo Bare explained that the studio is taking a break from working on any additions to the franchise, but didn’t specify exactly why.
“I can’t say definitively what might happen down the road, anything could happen,” Bare said. “But [Dishonored] is resting for now.”
A natural end?
The Dishonored franchise is a stealth action-adventure which sees you taking on the role of a supernatural assassin.
The most recent addition to the popular series, Death of the Outsider, was released at the end of last year. Without revealing any spoilers, the conclusion of the title brought the franchise’s story to a natural end, so it’s understandable that Arkane has decided to put the series on hold – or potential end it altogether.
So what’s next?
With the Dishonored series on hiatus, Arkane can focus its efforts on new projects. Although the studio hasn’t specified what it’s working on next, Bare hinted at what we can potentially expect from future titles.
“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 One,” Bare told VG247. “It’s just as important a character as the player or the people you meet.”
“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.”
- Check out our Dishonored 2 review