Blade (upcoming video game)

Marvel's Blade is an upcoming action-adventure game developed by Arkane Lyon and published by Bethesda Softworks. Based on the Marvel Comics character Blade, it will feature an original narrative that draws from the character's comic book mythology, while additionally deriving from various appearances in other media. The story follows vampire hunter Eric Brooks as he attempts to stave off an invasion on Paris, France while struggling with his origins among both the undead and the living.

Arkane Lyon entered development on their next game following the release of Deathloop (2021) in January 2022, subsequently pitching and being selected by Marvel Games to produce a video game around the character. The game was announced in December 2023.

Characters and setting
The game follows Eric Brooks, a dhampir who has spent his life as "the Daywalker", a hunter of vampires and other creatures of the night, while struggling with his dual-heritage to the warmth of human society and the bloodlust of the undead. The game's narrative takes him to a quarantine zone in the middle of Paris, France where a congregate of vampires have emerged to terrorize the city at night, forcing civilians to take shelter inside their homes until sunrise.

Gameplay
Marvel's Blade is a narrative-driven, third-person action-adventure title, representing a departure from previous games developed by Arkane Lyon which were usually played from a first-person perspective.

Development
Arkane Lyon, the French-based development division of Arkane Studios known for their work on the Dishonored series and Deathloop (2021), had begun preliminary work on their next project by January 2022, by which point Deathloop's campaign designer Dana Nightingale, had been tapped to serve as their new game's campaign director. During this period, Arkane Lyon creative director Dinga Bakaba and art director Sebastien Mitton were offered the opportunity to collaborate with Marvel Games, as the firm had been in the midst of licensing out their characters to external developers in a commitment to renew their focus on AAA titles. The pair pitched their vision of a standalone game focusing on Blade, which was responded to enthusiastically by Marvel Games' vice president Bill Rosemann, claiming that "The Arkane touch fits Blade like his trademark trenchcoat." The prospects of the title similarly excited Bethesda Softworks' former vice president Pete Hines. Arkane's game marks the first title focused on the character since the video game tie-ins to the Blade films by New Line Cinema, as well as the character's first standalone appearance in an original video game not tied to other media.

Marvel's Blade was announced with a cinematic trailer during The Game Awards 2023 on December 7, 2023. Bakaba spoke on Blade's character and the resonance he instilled on him as someone who also shared his mixed background and that he was excited to place the character in his hometown of Paris as the game's setting, stating that he considered the studio's chance to interpret the material their own way a dream of his, as well as "a challenge that our team embraces with a passion." Co-creative and art director Sebastien Mitton remarked on approaching a character like Blade as an opportunity to push Arkane's art direction into "even more modern and bold territory".

Release
An untitled licensed game from Bethesda Softworks was mentioned in the publisher's internal roadmap documents as slated for the 2024 fiscal year ending September 30, 2024. At this time, Bethesda had already been selected by Disney to publish Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (2024). As both games used respective licenses owned by Disney and developed by first-party studios part of Microsoft Gaming, senior VP of Global Games and Interactive Experiences at Disney Sean Shoptaw stated that whether Marvel's Blade launched as exclusive to Windows and Xbox consoles like Indiana Jones was for Bethesda to decide.