The company announced it would be closing the developer alongside āWraithborneās Alpha Dog and āHi-Fi Rushā developer Tango Gameworks - who was subsequently acquired by Krafton - and now the founder of Arkane has said shelving the studio was ānot a good decisionā.
Speaking with PC Gamer, Colantonio - who left the company following the release of its 2017 shooter āPreyā - said: āI think if you look a little bit, it's obvious that Arkane Austin was a very special group of people that have made some cool things and that could pull it off again.
āI think it was a decision that just came down to, āWe need to cut something.ā Was it to please the investors, the stock market? They're playing a different game.
āThe rules that they play, we might not understand them. It's a different thing. It's hard to know why they did what they did ...The only thing that I stand by is saying that the specific choice of killing Arkane Austin, that was not a good decision.ā
While he hadnāt been at the studio for its poorly-received first-person-shooter āRedfallā, Colantonio theorised the Bethesda-published game - which proved to be a major financial and critical failure upon its release last year - had been the final nail in the coffin for Arkane.
Looking at the game itself, the former president didnāt provide an exact reason for its disastrous launch, but stressed there would have been a myriad of factors that ultimately led to āRedfallā disappointing.
He explained: āThere's so many things that can influence [a game].
āSomeone in management, budget reductions, someone in marketing, a new change of direction in general about the market, you lost one of your main developers. There are so many things that can come into play.ā