Harvey Smith and former Arkane Austin team members have founded Black Pony Immersive, a new indie studio focused on narrative-driven immersive sims like Dishonored and Deus Ex. The studio's formation directly responds to lessons from Redfall's failure—Microsoft's live-service push that conflicted with Arkane's core expertise in single-player storytelling. The team is adopting a lean, focused approach with a small core team, avoiding external market pressures. For tech entrepreneurs, this illustrates the importance of staying true to a studio's strengths rather than chasing market trends.