The Dishonored games were a treat for old-time stealth sickos in part because they cleaved so closely to Thief, the greatest example of the genre. in fact, when it came time to give voice to Corvo Attano in Dishonored 2, Arkane chose Stephen Russell for the job, the man behind the iconic voice of Thief protag Garrett. It turns out that we were actually not too far off from a full-on Thief-by-Arkane experience before all that happened, as Bethesda initially approached Arkane with the idea of having the studio make Thief 4.
The tale was told during a recent Dishonored playthrough by co-directors Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith (via Knoebel on Bluesky), during which Colantonio said that before Dishonored, Arkane was lined up to do a game based on either Thief or Blade Runner: “The proposition was, ‘Hey, we have the Thief franchise and we know the people to make that game, and it’s you’.”
“Which is basically like coming to two cats and saying, ‘We have a big bag of catnip here on the one side. We have another bag of catnip here. Which one do you want? You want both?'” Smith interjected. “We were both so excited. Blade Runner and Thief, like two of our favorite things of all time.”
There’s apparently a bit of a split on that front: Colantonio said Thief was “frankly the IP that I would have liked to work on the most,” while Smith is “a big, big expert and fan of Blade Runner.” Bethesda had reassured the studio that it’d get one of the two properties, which led into Smith cheerleading for Blade Runner and Colantonio leading the Thief campaign.
“There was a little bit of a competition in a way, because even though we wanted what was best for the company, I would have been devastated if it was Blade Runner,” Colantonio said. Smith felt “vice versa,” he added, and given Smith’s laughter I suspect there were no hard feelings.
In any event, neither project worked out, and Colantonio said there was worry that Bethesda would cancel the development deal outright, which would have left Arkane in a tough spot. Instead, Bethesda eventually said, “It’s okay, keep what you’re doing and call it Dishonored,” and Colantonio and Smith collaborated on the project as co-directors. Bethesda parent company ZeniMax ultimately acquired Arkane in 2010.
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This isn’t the first time the story has been told: Colantonio said during the stream that he’s talked about it “a few times” previously, and Smith mentioned both in a 2025 interview on the closure of Arkane Austin. Still, as one of those old-time stealth sickos myself, I can’t help but feel wistful for what might have been—especially when Smith says, “We had an amazing pitch for Thief.” You’re killing me here, Harvey.
We did eventually get Thief 4, from Eidos Montreal, which was fine but not great. The storied series has sat moribund ever since; a new attempt at a spiritual successor, Thick as Thieves, released earlier this month: It too is fine, but not great—although there’s at least a chance for it to grow into something more fulfilling.
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