Black Pony Immersive Launches as Deus Ex, Dishonored Creators Aim Higher

A new immersive-simulation studio has quietly formed, bringing together two well-known architects of immersive gameplay after the upheaval that followed Bethesda-published service ambitions and the shutdown of Arkane Austin. Black Pony Immersive is now up and running with a small core team and plans to scale through outside partners as development ramps.

From Arkane Austin to a fresh immersive pitch

Black Pony Immersive was founded last year under an undisclosed publisher backing. The studio currently employs 26 people, with co-founders Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare both attached to the project. The pair previously worked within the immersive space, and their new collaboration is framed as a return to the kind of experiences they believe players still want—rather than chasing whatever the market happens to favor at any given moment.

1. Black Pony Immersive is established last year with a team of roughly thirty people.
2. Two genre veterans join the studio’s ranks, including Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bare, who have worked across acclaimed immersive titles such as System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief, Dishonored, Prey, and Redfall.
3. The project is funded by an anonymous publisher, and the team has begun work on a new immersive simulation game.
4. After Redfall steered Bethesda-focused plans toward live-service expectations, Arkane Austin was closed in May 2024, leaving Smith and Bare to regroup.

“Don’t chase trends”—a creative-first strategy

Ben Horne, another co-founder, argues that the industry’s direction is unpredictable, and that studios are unlikely to succeed by sprinting after trends. The stated goal is to build around a creative vision the developers are passionate about—and that they believe aligns with an audience ready to play immersive simulation games.

The studio’s thinking is tied directly to past outcomes: Horne points to Redfall’s role in Arkane Austin’s collapse, while also looking back at the way a more contrarian “Dishonored moment” approach once proved profitable for Bethesda and Arkane. In this new chapter, the team wants to prioritize that same kind of conviction rather than conforming to shifting market pressures.

How the studio plans to scale

Black Pony Immersive expects to keep a relatively small internal core—26 staff at the time of reporting—and rely heavily on external contractors and partner teams as the scope grows. Harvey Smith describes the advantage of maintaining a compact group that shares the studio’s creative vision, retains institutional knowledge, and has strong creative chemistry.

He also notes that outside partners have become increasingly capable, provided the studio delivers clear requirements and guidance on how the lead designer prefers to work. The approach is meant to let the studio bring in teams quickly when development needs to expand.