Dishonored’s Harvey Smith named his new studio Black Pony Immersive so people would stop asking him to work on other genres: ‘Specialising on what you love is not a bad path’
Harvey Smith, director of the acclaimed Dishonored series, has founded a new studio called Black Pony Immersive with fellow Arkane alumnus Ben Horne. The studio’s name is an intentional statement about the team’s focus: creating immersive simulations and first-person games.
The decision to explicitly include “immersive” in the studio name stems from Smith’s experiences at Arkane Studios, where the team frequently fielded requests to work on projects outside their core expertise. By making their specialization clear from the outset, Black Pony Immersive aims to avoid similar distractions.
Smith explained the reasoning behind the naming strategy: “When Arkane was independent, very often people would come in and they would try to get us to work on some game.” By being explicit about the studio’s identity and focus, Black Pony Immersive hopes to attract developers and projects aligned with their vision of immersive, first-person game design.
The move reflects Smith’s philosophy that specialization isn’t a limitation but a path toward excellence. Rather than competing across multiple genres, Black Pony Immersive plans to concentrate on what the team does best—creating deeply immersive gaming experiences. This strategy suggests the studio will continue the tradition of Arkane’s signature immersive sims.