Arkane devs say the studio almost made Thief 4 and a Blade Runner game before it made Dishonored 'We were both so excited. Blade Runner and Thief, two of our favourite things of all time'

Date:
Tue, 26 May 2026 11:40:16 +0000

Description:
According to two former Arkane Studios developers, the studio almost made a Blade Runner game and Thief 4 before it made Dishonored.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Arkane Studios co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith say they almost made a Blade Runner game and Thief 4 Bethesda approached Arkane with the idea, and Arkane developed pitches for both projects Thief 4 eventually became the foundation for Dishonored According to former Arkane Studios co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith, the Deathloop developer almost made a Blade Runner game and Thief 4 before it made Dishonored .

In a new YouTube series, spotted by user 'Knoebel' on BlueSky (via Eurogamer ), the developers sat down to reflect on Dishonored and its development 14 years after its release. Early on in the video, Colantonio revealed that Bethesda approached the studio to consider creating a new game in the Thief series, which would have been Thief 4 . Latest Videos From You may like 007 First Light gameplay director says players will 'see the Arkham games' in the combat, as well as Uncharted in its destructive environments Assassin's Creed 3 director discusses the disastrous launch of Skull and Bones, says the 'junior' devs didn't have enough experience and were 'trying to essentially make Black Flag crossed with World of Tanks or World of Warships' This Ubisoft-published action game began as an origami-themed university project

"Before we did Dishonored , we were supposed to either do Thief or Blade Runner ," said Colantonio. "Bethesda approached us with the proposition,
'Hey, we have the Thief franchise, and we know the people to make that game, and it's you'. It's our game."

"Which is basically like coming to two cats and saying, 'We have a big bag of catnip here on the one side. We have another bag of catnip here, which one do you want? You want both?'" Smith added. "We were both so excited. Blade
Runner and Thief, two of our favourite things of all time."

"We were in such a dire situation business-wise, and they came up not only to save us from business, but also to bring frankly, the IP that I would have liked to work on the most," Colantonio said. The creators of Dishonored react to their game after 14years | The Creators Play Dishonored | Part 1 - YouTube Watch On Smith continued, saying that they had "an amazing pitch" for what would have been Thief 4 , with Colantonio interjecting to add that they had "some videos" as well, and for Blade Runner , they had worked with one of Arkane's animators who specialised in first-person combat to create some fighting animations. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
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"We also did some Replicant fighting because we had talked to Doug Church [a veteran game designer], and he said, you know, even sitting around in a room together, they would be doing things with their bodies that humans couldn't do," Colantonio added. "Like, reaching in and grabbing the eggs out of the boiling water or whatever. So we had flips, and it was super exciting to be working on Blade Runner . The story pitch we had for Blade Runner was just I loved it.

"The funny thing was that we initially thought we were going to be [working on] Thief . I was so excited, and they said, well, it might also be Blade Runner , and there was no way I could focus on Thief and Blade Runner at the same time."

Unfortunately, Arkane was never able to make its vision for Blade Runner and Thief 4 a reality, and because Bethesda hadn't yet acquired the studio, they were concerned about the direction they were going in. What to read next Former Obdisian creative officer says not to bet on a Fallout: New Vegas remake, because Bethesda doesn't have 'the engineering know-how' to create
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That is, until Bethesda suggested to "keep what you're doing and call it Dishonored ".

"[ Dishonored ] started on the base of Thief 4 ," Colantonio revealed.

Dishonored was released in 2012, and Arkane later developed Dishonored 2 , which launched in 2016.

In early 2024, it was reported that Arkane Austin wanted to make a new single-player game, such as a Dishonored sequel, before the studio was shut down . Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/gaming-industry/arkane-devs-say-the-studio-al most-made-thief-4-and-a-blade-runner-game-before-it-made-dishonored-we-were-bo th-so-excited-blade-runner-and-thief-two-of-our-favourite-things-of-all-time


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