Dishonored Director Harvey Smith Defends Big-Budget Immersive Sims

Dishonored director Harvey Smith believes there is still room for big-budget immersive sims, offering a different perspective from fellow designer Randy Smith. While Randy Smith recently argued that immersive sims are caught in an arms race to be bigger and better, Harvey Smith suggests that high budgets can yield monumental results when handled correctly. Having recently left Arkane to establish his new studio Black Pony Immersive, Harvey Smith discussed the scale of game development in a recent interview.

Randy Smith previously noted that massive budgets can become a trap, inflating publisher expectations and forcing niche genres to compete with mass market releases. Harvey Smith agrees that developers must right-size their budgets and avoid becoming overly conservative with their features. However, he maintains that high-budget projects can achieve greatness when they have proper team backing. When it really comes together and it has the budget behind it and the team, you end up with Deus Ex or Dishonored or BioShock, according to Harvey Smith.

The debate highlights ongoing discussions about scale within the genre. Smaller independent projects might lack the people power, budget, or time to build systems with deep range and analog physics. Conversely, blockbuster games carry severe financial risks and immense pressure from publishers. High expectations from major publishers previously impacted games like Dishonored 2 and Prey, which faced critical acclaim but struggled against sales expectations, ultimately affecting studios like Arkane. Harvey Smith's new venture, Black Pony Immersive, has not yet announced its first project.