It looks like Dishonored and Prey developer Arkane Studios is hiring up for a new game. A suite of job listings for the company's teams in both Lyon and Austin have shown up recently, with several directly mentioning an unannounced project.
As pointed out on Twitter by MauroNL, two out of three job listings at Arkane Lyon mention that the studio "is seeking talented [developers] to join us for a new unannounced project." Over at Arkane Austin, a listing for a graphics engineer is looking for someone "to join our team in developing our next AAA title."
Looking at the Arkane Studios Lyon job openings it looks like they are starting to hire for their next project after Deathloop. 2 of the 3 openings available in Lyon mention "Arkane studios Lyon is seeking talented Engine Programmers to join us for a new unannounced project." 1/5September 21, 2020
At this point, there's no official word on what those games might look like, but the listings do give us a vague idea. One listing asks for familiarity with Unreal Engine 4, but many of Arkane's previous games have been built in a form of id Tech, the only notable exception being Prey, which runs on CryEngine, suggesting a potentially hefty overhaul. Other listings ask for experience with online features or a 'live' gameplay environment, which could mean multiplayer features are in the works. One listing, for an engine programmer, mentions "immersive simulation and emergent gameplay," which could mean a return to the likes of Prey or Dishonored.
Arkane Lyon is currently working on Deathloop, which is due to release next summer. The Austin studio's last game was 2017's Prey, but more recently it's helped out with last year's Wolfenstein games, Youngblood and Cyberpilot. We're unlikely to find out what these new projects are for a while yet, but the idea that Arkane is scaling up is certainly exciting, particularly in the context of Bethesda Softworks' recent acquisition by Microsoft.
