Arkane almost made Thief 4 and Blade Runner game

Arkane were in talks with Bethesda about Thief 4 and a potential Blade Runner game.

Arkane almost made Thief 4 and a Blade Runner game before Dishonored.

The studio, which is also behind the likes of Redfall and Deathloop, has recalled talks with Bethesda about two major IPs before they used the groundwork as the basis for what became the first Dishonored title.

In a new YouTube video, former Arkane co-directors Raphael Colantino and Harvey Smith recalled the fascinating period.

Colantonio said: “Before we did Dishonored, we were supposed to either do Thief or Blade Runner.

“Bethesda approached us with the proposition, ‘Hey, we have the Thief franchise, and we know the people to make that game, and it’s you.'”

Smith compared the scenario to the pair being two cats getting offered two big bags of catnip.

He added: “We were both so excited. Blade Runner and Thief, two of our favourite things of all time.”

Colantonio admitted the studio was “in such a dire situation business-wise at the time”, while the IPs were both enticing.

Smith explained: “We had an amazing pitch for Thief. Would have been Thief 4 – and for Blade Runner, we had worked with our brilliant animator, specialising in first-person combat, a really good guy, and a game designer on top of everything.”

Colantonio clarified the pair actually went beyond a pitch for Thief 4, and even “had some videos”.

Smith continued: “We also did some Replicant fighting because we had talked to [the godfather of immersive sims] Doug Church, and he said, you know, even sitting around in a room together, they would be doing things with their bodies that humans couldn’t do.

“Like, reaching in and grab[bing] the eggs out of the boiling water or whatever. So we had flips and it was super exciting to be working on Blade Runner.

“The story pitch we had for Blade Runner was just – I loved it.”

At first, the pair thought they were working on Thief, before Bethesda suggested “it might also be Blade Runner”.

In the end, neither of the ideas worked out, but the studio urged the pair to “keep what you’re doing and call it Dishonored”.

Colantonio added: “[Dishonored] started on the base of Thief 4.”