Marvel's Blade game received an encouraging update from its development team to close out the year. Coming from the Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, Marvel's Blade was first showcased at The Game Awards 2023, debuting a cinematic CG trailer featuring the iconic vampire killer, along with a stunningly rendered Parisian setting.
The upcoming title is just one of several big-name video game projects coming from the iconic comic book brand over the next couple of years, yet fans have not seen or heard much from it. However, according to one of its lead developers, it is shaping up nicely.
Replying to a fan on X, Studio/Co-Creative Director at Arkane Lyon Dinga Bakaba recently offered up the first update on the Blade video game project in years. "The team is hard at work," Bakaba posited, adding, "It will be a special game, and we all hope it will be meeting the high standards that we set for ourselves:"
"The team is hard at work, everyone is super proud and out doing themselves. Please be patient, it will be a special game and we all hope it will be meeting the high standards that we set for ourselves and for you all."
This is the first substantial update fans have gotten on the project in quite some time. The last significant piece of news to come from the Blade studio arrived almost two years ago, as financials for the Lyon-based dev team revealed that the title had gone into full production as of January 2024 (just one month after the game's official announcement).
According to the game's official website, Blade will follow its titular character as he "becomes the champion of...Paris, one stake at a time," while "pushing" the Arkane team into unfamiliar territory as it takes on one of the most celebrated comic book heroes in the history of the medium. No release timing to platforms has been made available for the game at this time.
The Blade game is notably not the only Blade-centric project in development, with Marvel Studios having worked on a big-screen blockbuster centered on the character for some time now. Starring Mahershala Ali as the sword-swinging daywalker, Marvel Studios' Blade also has no known release information as it remains stuck in development (read more about the Blade movie here).
When Will Fans Next See Arkane's Blade Game?
Thus far, the only look fans have been given at the upcoming Blade game came more than two years ago with its stellar debut trailer. However, even that was entirely made up of computer-generated animation, rather than any actual gameplay.
Outside of the trailer itself, a few pieces of art from the game have been released, but that has been the extent of it.
Earlier this year, fans were given quite a scare regarding the project, as Microsoft shuttered Arkane's Austin studio following the poorly received release of Redfall. As it has been some time since gamers last heard about the Blade project, some wondered what this meant for the title's future, but it appears to have remained unaffected.
Seeing as 2026 will mark two years since Blade officially went into production, the game is still likley several years away. However, it would not be all that surprising if Arkane and Microsoft were to dust it off and bring it back out on stage for another marketing beat at some point in the new year.
Microsoft still hosts its own showcase around what used to be E3 time in early June. If the game was going to show up somewhere again, that feels like the right spot. Perhaps, this second look at the title could debut a look at gameplay, giving fans a taste of the blood-sucking action set to make up the moment-to-moment in Arkane's first foray into the Marvel-verse.
Even if Blade doesn't end up resurfacing in 2026, fans looking for super-powered video game adventures will have no lack of choice over the next 12 months with big-name titles like Marvel's Wolverine and LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight on the way as well. However, it would be nice to see how Arkane is doing with its blood-sucking action game.
