Black Pony Immersive reunites Dishonored and Prey veterans

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Harvey Smith, Ben Horne and Ricardo Bare have formed a studio focused on immersive sims following the closure of Arkane Austin.

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Black Pony Immersive has been unveiled as a new studio founded by veterans behind series including Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey and Thief: Deadly Shadows. The team plans to focus on developing immersive sims.

The studio is led by Harvey Smith, Ben Horne and Ricardo Bare. Smith and Horne previously worked at Arkane Austin, the team behind Redfall, before Xbox shut it down in May 2024. The announcement came alongside the closure of Tango Gameworks, despite Xbox stating in 2023 that it would not close the Redfall studio.

Smith, Horne and Bare began working on Black Pony Immersive in August 2025 and kept the project under wraps over the past year. The first interview about the new developer also addressed the issues encountered during the production of Redfall.

Smith cited Arkane Austin's rapid growth and expectations surrounding games as a service as factors that led the studio to work in a genre outside its expertise. He also acknowledged having “the foolish arrogance” to believe the team could not make mistakes.

Production was also affected by the pandemic and other challenges unrelated to the game's development. The goal now is to return to the kind of experience for which its founders became known.

The name Black Pony Immersive itself signals that direction. The studio's first game is expected to draw more heavily from Deus Ex and Dishonored than Redfall, but the project has yet to receive a name, platform or release date.

gamescom 2026 begins this week, while Black Pony Immersive has yet to announce what its first title will be.

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