league-of-legends

Harvey Smith and Ben Horne launch Black Pony Immersive in Austin to revive immersive sims

Veteran developers Harvey Smith and Ben Horne have founded Black Pony Immersive, a new Austin-based studio focused on first-person action-RPGs with expressive, emergent gameplay. Smith co-created Dishonored and led creative direction on its sequels, while Horne served as production director on Arkane's Redfall and will be COO and executive producer at the new studio. The studio explicitly targets immersive-sim design at a moment when Arkane's future is unsettled and single-player immersive sims have been scarce.

• Black Pony Immersive is headquartered in Austin, Texas and will design and develop imaginative first-person action-RPGs featuring emergent, player-driven systems.
• Harvey Smith is co-founder; he served as co-creative director on Dishonored and creative director on Dishonored 2.
• Ben Horne is co-founder and will act as COO and executive producer; he most recently worked as production director on Redfall.
• Arkane Studios' future is unclear while Arkane Lyon remains operational; Black Pony's stated focus aims to continue the immersive-sim tradition that includes Dishonored, Prey and Deathloop.