Arkane Studios is a French video game developer based in Lyon, France. It was founded in 1999, and released its first game, Arx Fatalis, in 2002. Arkane Studios opened an Austin, Texas-based office in July 2006.
The studio's second game, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, was released in October 2006. It refined the first-person melee combat of Arx Fatalis with a lesser emphasis on role-playing elements.
In December 2006, the company announced its new first-person shooter title, The Crossing, which was later put on hold. In July 2009, 2K Marin announced that Arkane was signed up to help with BioShock 2 development, more specifically "design, animation, and art".
Between 2006 and 2007, the company was working in conjunction with Valve Software to develop a game in the Half-Life series called "Return to Ravenholm." The project has since been cancelled and its existence has been confirmed by Valve employee Marc Laidlaw.
In August 2010, the company was acquired by ZeniMax Media.
The studio most recently worked on Dishonored, a first-person stealth-action game with role-playing elements that was released in October 2012, and received with critical acclaim.
Read more about Arkane Studios: Games