Harvey Smith and Ben Horne, both former Arkane Austin developers, have launched Black Pony Immersive alongside Deus Ex designer Ricardo Bare. The independent studio is taking on a genre many publishers consider commercially risky: the immersive simulation.
Black Pony’s team includes veterans associated with System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Dishonored and Prey. Their work has helped define games built around exploration, player choice and systems that interact in unexpected ways—design ideas that continue to influence the broader arcade and gaming industry.
From Arkane Austin to Black Pony
Smith and Horne worked at Arkane Austin until Microsoft closed the studio. Its final project was Redfall, a short-lived and disappointing release that came after the team’s much stronger contribution to immersive sims. Smith and Bare’s professional history also reaches back to Ion Storm, the studio behind Deus Ex, while Smith’s career includes work on the 1994 classic System Shock.
The group has kept a low profile since Arkane Austin’s closure, but Black Pony has already been developing in secret for more than a year. Work began in August 2025, and the studio now has 26 full-time employees. Many previously worked at Arkane, while others are new additions to the team.
Why launch an immersive sim now?
In interviews with The Game Business and GamesIndustry, Smith and Horne defended the decision to create another immersive sim. They said the Dishonored games were financial successes and argued that Black Pony’s decades of genre experience gives the studio a strong foundation.
Smith also suggested that repeatedly labelling a genre as commercially unviable can help make that prediction come true. He believes companies chasing the latest industry trend may be more exposed to failure than a focused team pursuing a clear creative direction.
“We don’t have to seek much approval from anyone else, and that makes us very nimble,” Smith said.
Independence should also spare Black Pony from the scale of expectations associated with a corporate giant such as Microsoft. Smith described the current climate as “the worst time in history” to start a game studio, but explained that difficult conditions can provide the impetus to attempt something ambitious.
What will Black Pony make?
The studio has not disclosed the setting, subject or detailed design of its first game. For now, the only confirmed information is that the project will be an immersive sim.
That cautious approach comes during a period of widespread studio closures. Many developers have established new AA teams after leaving major companies, promising to continue similar work, yet a significant number of those ventures have struggled. Black Pony’s experience and credits provide reasons for measured optimism, particularly because Smith and Horne have discussed lessons from their mistakes and difficult experiences as well as their successes.
Players interested in experimental design and games driven by meaningful choices will be watching closely. The project may also appeal to readers who follow the wider arcade video and games-development conversation, where specialised teams continue to explore alternatives to mainstream formulas.
Black Pony’s independent structure may be as important as its famous credits. While the studio’s first game remains largely mysterious, its progress could offer useful insight into how small teams approach ambitious, systems-focused projects—much like creators weighing the practical options in an arcade machine buying guide before committing to a new setup.
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