Arkane co-founder Raphaël Colantonio has shared that Bethesda apparently weren’t interested in a Dishonored 3, which eventually led to Deathloop being greenlit.
Speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, Colantonio explained that Deathloop started life as a “small game,” that Arkane would use as an opportunity to learn more about developing a multiplayer game before its next bigger project. “Bethesda wanted us to do something,” Colantonio said. “They didn’t quite know where we were going after Dishonored. ‘Do we want Dishonored 3? I don’t know, let’s make something simple and short before, and let’s see.'”
“And then [Deathloop] became a big thing, over the years. That was the funny thing: ‘Nah, we don’t wanna do Dishonored 3, but if you can pitch us a small game, something that maybe has multiplayer so we can learn multiplayer, something that maybe has microtransactions, maybe something with a lot of recycling, like a roguelike.'”