Harvey Smith (Dishonored, Deus Ex) founds Black Pony Immersive

The studio had existed for a year without anyone knowing about it. Harvey Smith revealed on August 19th Black Pony Immersive, secretly set up in August 2025 in Austin, Texas, and already boasting 26 full-time employees.

Smith is no stranger: lead designer on the first Deus Ex, co-creative director on Dishonored, creative director on Dishonored 2. Here he holds the positions of CEO and creative director. He is joined by Ben Horne, director of operations and executive producer, with whom he has worked for more than eight years, most recently at Arkane Austin — the studio shut down by Microsoft in May 2024 following the failure of Redfall. The team also brings together veterans from Insomniac, Epic Games, Avalanche, and Volition.

A single-player game, and independent funding

Black Pony Immersive is announcing "first-person action role-playing games" built on emergent systems, in other words immersive sims. A first single-player, narrative-driven title is in the works, with no name or release window. The studio says it is independently funded and claims to have turned down several deals, including some involving non-fungible tokens.

"In a period of instability for the industry, I'm proud to announce the next step of my journey," Smith states. The reception from fans of the genre was immediate: since the closure of Arkane Austin, the immersive sim scene hasn't had much to sink its teeth into. It remains to be seen what a 26-person team can produce, where Dishonored 2 mobilized several hundred.