Arkane Lyon union says studio is profitable as closure talks continue with Microsoft
The unionised workers at Arkane Lyon, the Dishonored studio behind the upcoming Marvel's Blade, say the studio is profitable and accuse Microsoft of creating the economic conditions it cites for closure.
The unionised workers at Arkane Lyon have published a new statement accusing Microsoft of sabotaging development of Marvel's Blade and of creating the economic conditions the company is now using to justify closing the studio. The union says Arkane Lyon is profitable, and argues that the decision is not about the studio's finances but about the size of the returns Microsoft expects.
Arkane Lyon is the French studio best known for the Dishonored series. It is currently developing Marvel's Blade, a forthcoming game. Microsoft owns both Xbox and Arkane Lyon's parent company, which places the corporation at the centre of the negotiations now under way with the workers' union. The closure has not been finalised and remains under negotiation, so the studio has not yet been shut down.
In the statement, the union sets out its demands in the talks. It is calling for a redundancy offer proportionate to Microsoft's market value, rather than one based on the studio's own position. The union's wording points to a clear grievance: that a company of Microsoft's scale is effectively shifting the cost of its strategic choices onto the people who build its games.
The accusation that Microsoft has created the economic conditions it now cites is central to the union's position. By framing the closure as a consequence of the parent company's own decisions, the workers reject the idea that the studio's situation arose independently of Microsoft's management. The union's claim that the company is sabotaging development of Marvel's Blade adds to this argument, suggesting that the current difficulties are linked to how the project itself is being handled.
The union also makes a financial claim that goes further. According to its statement, closing the studio may cost Xbox more than completing Marvel's Blade would. This is the union's own assessment and has not been independently verified. No figures have been published to support the comparison between the cost of closure and the cost of finishing the game, and the union has not disclosed the calculations behind it.
The size of any redundancy offer from Microsoft remains unknown, as does the company's position on the union's allegations. Microsoft's response to the new statement has not been reported in the available sources. Until the negotiations conclude, the future of Arkane Lyon and of Marvel's Blade stays unresolved, with the union arguing that the studio's profitability should be part of the conversation about its fate.
Source: rockpapershotgun.com
5
