Following the completion of Dishonored's second entry in 2016, many were waiting with bated breath to see where the hugely beloved stealth-action series would travel to next. However, with the Death of the Outsider DLC completing the storyline, many quickly realized that more Dishonored wasn't on the cards anytime soon.
This was only doubled down on by Dishonored developer Ricardo Bare, who was quoted as saying that the series "is resting for now." Of course, the comment was quite vague, however, it seems it might not have been as definitively final as some might think. Speaking to IGN, Arkane Studio’s Co-Creative Director Dinga Bakaba was quick to contextualize the quote and make it clear that, while the series isn't coming back anytime soon, it's far from dead.
"It’s weird because for us as a studio, we never did a sequel to a game we made before," Bakaba says, referring to the 2016 release of Dishonored 2. "It was interesting to make and everything, but the rumors of putting the IP on hold was highly exaggerated and was misquoted." It seems the series' hiatus might not be as rigidly fixed as some might first have believed when hearing the quote, with Bakaba claiming that it was "over-interpreted." He goes on to state "I don’t think there was a decision to put [the] Dishonored series on hold...It’s something where we had a story to tell about the Kaldwins and the Outsider, and that story is over."
Bakaba seems to claim that while the narrative first started in the original Dishonored has come to a close, there's been no fixed decision to never return to the series' universe again in the future. After all, Dishonored had a vast and multifaceted world with several major characters, locations, and storylines. While Corvo, Emily, and the Outsider's tale has come to a close, that's not to say that the world has completely run out of space for new narratives to be weaved. "whatever happens, that Dishonored is complete," he confirms, clarifying "this is the best, and most honest answer we can give but, in any case, I don’t think we will be revisiting [the Kaldwin storyline]."
It makes sense seen as Arkane is quickly becoming a studio that favors jumping between huge, expansive worlds through each of their games, not becoming tied down to any single franchise. Bakaba even claims that Arkane is "not a studio of one game, and I don't think we ever will be." With the release of Death Loop on the horizon, it'll be interesting to see where the studio goes next.
Source: IGN