Former Arkane Austin studio director Harvey Smith, known for his work on games including Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Dishonored, has joined with executive producer Ben Horne to launch a new studio called Black Pony Immersive. The new operation features "an elite development team" built around personnel from Arkane, Insomniac, Epic, Avalanche, and Volition, including Smith's long-time collaborator Ricardo Bare.
In case the name Black Pony Immersive doesn't give it away, the new studio is "built to design and develop imaginative first person action RPGs set within well-realized worlds," with emergent game systems giving players the freedom to approach challenges as they see fit. And if you're thinking to yourself, boy, that sure seems like a lot of words to say 'immersive sims,' well, you're right. But immersive sims are in kind of a rough place right now, so I don't blame Smith and company for taking a more verbose, descriptive run at laying out what they want to do.
