Arkane Lyon has another month. Microsoft has extended the consultation on closing the Dishonored and Deathloop studio by one month, moving the date it has to make its call from November 13 to December 13, and for the first time it is describing what it is looking for: not just a buyer, but “a partner to support the studio through the development work still ahead”. That work is Marvel’s Blade.
The deadline moves from November 13 to December 13
When we covered the November 13 deadline on Thursday, the position was stark: the formal consultation with staff representatives would end that day, and unless someone bought the studio, Microsoft would close it, with 217 jobs on the line. The two unions representing staff, STJV and Printemps Écologique, were asking for more time for the buyer search and the redundancy talks. Microsoft has now given it. In a statement to press, the company said it had “extended the consultation period by one additional month” and called it “a defined extension”, adding that it remains committed to keeping the Works Council informed.
“A partner to support the studio through the development work still ahead”
The wording is the news inside the news. Microsoft says it is exploring options “such as finding a partner to support the studio through the development work still ahead”. A partner is a different shape of deal from a sale: it could mean a publisher co-funding Blade to completion, or a buyer taking the studio with Microsoft keeping a stake in the game. Microsoft has not said which, and it has not said who. It also restated that the closure documents filed with the Works Council are part of the required process and “do not represent a final decision”.
Schreier says several rescue paths are live, and none of them keep Arkane inside Xbox
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier wrote on Bluesky on Thursday that “there are multiple paths actively being explored that would save Arkane Lyon” and that he would “be surprised if the studio is shut down”, while cautioning that anything can happen in negotiations. Asked whether that meant Arkane might stay, his answer was blunt: “There’s no scenario in which Arkane remains part of Xbox.” Read together with Microsoft’s statement, the realistic outcomes are a sale or a co-funding partner, with the extra month there to close one of them.
217 jobs and a nearly finished Blade are still what is at stake
Nothing about the stakes has changed. Arkane Lyon employs about 217 people. Under French law a site of its size cannot be closed until a genuine search for a buyer has been carried out, which is what the consultation period is for. The unions have said Blade is close to done, and the studio’s own description of the project earlier this year matched that. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma named Arkane among the studios to be divested in her reset of the division in July. December 13 is now the date to watch, and the first sign of an answer will be a named partner rather than a deadline.
