Ken Levine, the director behind BioShock, BioShock Infinite, and the upcoming Judas, has made it known that he wants to hire developers who may have recently lost their jobs at Arkane Austin. Within the past day, Xbox made the shocking announcement that it would be shuttering Arkane Austin as a way of reallocating costs for other projects. Now, Levine is trying to provide a silver lining to this grim situation by picking some of Arkane’s former talent.
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In a recent series of messages on X (or Twitter), Levine said directly that he’s looking to hire previous Arkane developers to come work on Judas at his studio Ghost Story Games. Levine encouraged those who have a specific “talent set” to reach out to him directly if they’re interested in such an opportunity. Elsewhere, he went on to say that Dishonored and Prey are two of his favorite franchises ever. He specifically praised Prey: Mooncrash as arguably the best piece of DLC that he’s ever played.
“Arkane Studios is the creator of two of my favorite game franchises of all time, Prey and Dishonored,” Levine said of his adoration for the company. “I’m sad and disappointed to see the Austin studio close down, but there is a dedicated group of devs who are committed to keeping the torch of that genre alive and vibrant.”
Generally speaking, Arkane’s games have often drawn comparisons in the past to the BioShock series as they’ve all been part of the immersive sim genre. As a result, this seems like an opportunity that many who previously worked at Arkane would jump at. Levine himself hasn’t yet confirmed if he’s lined up any previous Arkane members to now work at Ghost Story Games, but hopefully, this situation is one that ends up working out for all parties.
As for Judas itself, it’s still not known when exactly the first project from Ghost Story Games will be arriving. In recent months, though, Judas has been shown off more in-depth via trailers and hands-on previews, which suggests that its launch could be drawing close. Regardless of when it does hit shelves, it’s known that the game will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
