Marvel's Blade and Arkane Lyon's future are still up in the air after Xbox's studio purge

Microsoft's sweeping Xbox restructuring has left Arkane Lyon in an unusual limbo. While Double Fine and Compulsion are going independent and Ninja Theory and Undead Labs are being sold to undisclosed buyers, the Lyon studio's fate is still officially described only as under "consultation" — with no concrete outcome announced.

The reason Arkane Lyon is on a different timeline than the other affected studios comes down to French labour law. The studio must go through a formal consultation process with a regional Works Council before any decisions are finalised, and Xbox has confirmed this will include a "review of potential strategic options." That language covers everything from a sale to a full closure. On the closure end of the spectrum, Arkane Austin was shut down in 2024 after the troubled launch of Redfall — a precedent that makes the Lyon situation feel more precarious. On the more optimistic end, Arkane co-founder Raphael Colantonio — who left the company back in 2017 — publicly replied to an Asha Sharma tweet asking how much it would cost to buy Arkane back from Xbox. It may be a long shot, but an independent Arkane making games in the vein of Dishonored again is the kind of outcome the studio's fanbase would welcome.

As for Marvel's Blade itself, Microsoft has stated explicitly that none of its publicly announced first-party games or projects are being cancelled as part of these cuts — which would put Blade in the clear, at least on paper. Arkane Lyon has been developing the vampire action game since it was revealed in 2023, and it has not appeared at recent Xbox showcases, fuelling speculation about its status. A report from The Verge, however, indicated the game was at risk even before this restructuring wave, adding another layer of uncertainty on top of the official reassurances.

The coming weeks should bring more clarity once the French consultation process runs its course. Until then, both the studio's future and the fate of Blade remain genuinely unresolved — caught between corporate reassurances and a restructuring that has already claimed four studios and thousands of jobs across Xbox.