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.
"During a time of industry volatility, I'm proud to announce the next step in my videogame journey with the reveal of our new studio," Smith said."This effort reflects everything we've learned, and all we hold dear. My favorite gaming memories come from seeing players approach challenges with creativity, deep-diving into our world building. We try to reward players for their curiosity and exploration. At our new studio, we're building exactly the kind of singleplayer games we're most passionate about."
Black Pony's new website is also very on point: Beneath the polished, corporate mission statement typical of new startups, it says, "Through the looking glass, we’re chasing a dream of mystery, meaning, and creative play."
All due respect to Lewis Carroll, that is 100% a reference to Looking Glass Studios, the legendary immersive sim studio that, in various guises over an amazing half-decade run, gave us Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. It is, essentially, Smith throwing down the gauntlet, and I can tell you that some of us here in the PC Gamer mines are pretty excited about it.
The new studio will mark Smith's return to the industry following the closure of Arkane Austin in 2024, a year after the disastrous flop of Redfall. Smith said in 2025 that the shutdown came as "a shock," because the studio had done such great work in the past and was "working on something very cool" when the axe fell. Maybe some part of that will make it to this new operation?
What exactly Black Pony will be getting up to first has yet to be revealed, but there are some clickables on the website that might offer insights. While you wait for something more definitive to happen there, here's a fun in-depth chat from a few years back with Smith, Bare, and fellow immsim pros Warren Spector, Tom Francis, and Steve Gaynor on making PC's most complex games.
