Blade fans have lived through an unpredictable rollercoaster since 2019. First, it was announced that Mahershala Ali would bring the iconic vampire hunter to life in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in his own standalone movie. Unfortunately, two different directors have now left the project, and a release date hasn't been set after seven years. To make matters worse, the iconic antihero may suffer a similar fate in the video game world.
Back in 2023, publisher Bethesda and developer Arkane Lyon announced Marvel's Blade—a single-player, third-person game set in a vampire-infested Paris. A pre-rendered trailer was used to unveil the upcoming title to the world, and since then, superhero fans have been eager to get a look at real-time gameplay and learn when it will hit shelves. Unfortunately, both of those key details have eluded us for the past three years, and there could be a really good reason why.
Marvel's Blade developer Arkane Lyon is reportedly at risk of closure
With Marvel's Blade disappearing from the public eye for multiple years, fans started to worry it was at risk of being canceled. However, there was a silver lining amidst all the silence. On June 7, lead concept artist and art director assistant at Arkane Lyon, Jean-Luc Monnet, replied to a fan asking about the game's fate with a GIF that reads, "Let us cook." Many took it as confirmation that Marvel's Blade was alive and well, but not too long after, tragedy seems to have struck.
According to Mike Straw, Executive Editor for Insider Gaming, Arkane has "expressed real worry" that the studio will be closed by Xbox. The news came before it was reported that there will be massive layoffs at Xbox that will result in a "bloodbath of job losses and studio closures." Developers like Compulsion Games, Double Fine, and even Ninja Theory—the masterminds behind the Hellblade series—are at risk of closure.
According to reliable scooper Jason Schreier, many of the studios being shut down were simply following Xbox's orders to create titles to make Game Pass more attractive to players, but that strategy eventually backfired:
"The last couple of years at Xbox have been quite messy. People start openly questioning Game Pass and saying it's cannibalizing sales. What might be good for the Game Pass folks may not be so good for the studios and revenue brought in for individual games. (...) A lot of these studios made plenty of their own mistakes, but in a lot of ways they're being punished today for following orders; for listening to what they were told a few years ago."
If Arkane Lyon were to truly shut down throughout the course of this year, then Marvel's Blade will never see the light of day, regardless of how far into development it is.
This wouldn't be the first time an anticipated superhero game got unexpectedly canceled. Unfortunately, a Black Panther title originally set to be published by Electronic Arts was axed. Furthermore, the Wonder Woman game by Monolith Productions also met a terrible fate. There are a lot of expectations behind these characters and stories, which means development cycles often extend beyond initial expectations, resulting in their eventual cancellations.
On the bright side, there's still plenty of action coming our way. Marvel's Wolverine is just around the corner, and Insomniac Games is already working on Marvel's Spider-Man 3. Furthermore, MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls will be released this year, and Marvel's Iron Man and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra are still in development.
Only time will tell what the future holds for Marvel's Blade, but let's hope that we find out about it soon.
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