Dishonored’s Co-Creator Is Making A New Immersive Sim That Sounds Awfully Familiar

The co-creator of beloved immersive sims Dishonored and Prey has just announced his studio’s next game, and fans of his earlier work may want to pay attention. While the upcoming game by Wolfeye Studios is just entering production and doesn’t even have an announced name, early hints suggest it will have a lot more in common with the studio founder’s legacy than its previous release.

Raphael Colantonio founded Arkane Studios and co-created both Dishonored and Prey before departing in 2019 to start Wolfeye. Its first game was 2022’s Weird West, an isometric action RPG somewhat in the vein of Fallout. While Weird West received mixed reviews, its fans praised the way it wove in immersive sim elements with its dynamic world, as well as its branching story. The gameplay couldn’t quite keep up with its dynamic narrative, according to critics, but it’s at the very least a fun Wild West sandbox.

For its sophomore game, Wolfeye Studios is leaning on its expertise. Along with Colantonio, former Arkane executive Julien Roby is serving as executive producer on the new project, and staff at the developer is largely made up of former members of both Arkane Lyon and Arkane Austin. For many of them, the next Wolfeye release looks like a return to form.

Given that it’s so early in development, details are scarce on Wolfeye’s next game. What we do know is that it’s set to be a first-person action RPG set in a retro sci-fi world. From that description, it could bear quite a lot in common with Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds, but there seems to be a lot more to it than that.

“Fans of the past games I have been involved with such as Dishonored and Prey will feel at home, as well as fans of RPGs in general,” Colantonio said in the game’s announcement. That suggests that the immersive sim elements of Arkane’s hits and Wolfeye’s Weird West will unsurprisingly be reappearing in the upcoming title. With the return to a first-person RPG framework, it’s likely that there will be a lot more Dishonored than Weird West in the game.

That’s born out by art released alongside the game’s announcement, which is so far the most concrete example of what to expect. One image shows a frontier town set on a dusty cliffside, with some kind of scaffolding-wrapped tower in the distance. There are Weird West vibes here for sure, but another image shows what may be a closer view of the same town. Here we see a giant mechanical contraption being worked on by two engineers, and its ornamental style seems to suggest Dishonored just as much as the backdrop screams Wild West.

A final image is a closeup of a bipedal robot. It again bears some detailing that feels like the midpoint between a Wild West aesthetic and the steampunk style of Dishonored. While it’s far too soon to say definitively, the concept art paints a pretty compelling picture of Wolfeye’s next game putting a steampunk spin on a Western setting the same way that Dishonored did for Victorian England.

The downside of the reveal is that we’ve got a while to go before we see a clearer picture of Wolfeye’s upcoming game. The announcement comes at the end of pre-production, meaning it will likely be years before release. Colantonio also says Wolfeye is still looking for a publisher. However, Wolfeye is holding a private alpha test for the new title some time in 2025, so a select few players will actually be able to get their hands on some version of the game before too long. Anyone interested in joining the test can register on Wolfeye’s website, but there’s no guarantee that signing up will earn you a space.

The tantalizingly thin details of Wolfeye’s next game are coming at an auspicious time. Just a few months ago, Prey developer Arkane Austin was closed by new owner Microsoft, both dealing another blow to developers working in an increasingly precarious industry and further reducing the chances that the remaining Arkane staff will be returning to its most beloved series any time soon. With plenty of former Arkane talent on staff and an eye toward reviving the dwindling immersive sim genre, Wolfeye could be in the perfect position to give players the spiritual sequel to Dishonored and Prey they’ve been waiting for.