into the basis of Dishonored, and worked out how they would share responsibilities at the studio. Smith formally came on board Arkane in 2008. 2010s Entering into 2010 with no game of their own, and their contract work having started to run down, the studio was preparing to let go of its staff to conserve costs. They were approached by Bethesda Softworks, who had an idea of a stealth-based game set in feudal Japan which they wanted to name Dishonored, and felt Arkane's talents were ideal for the job and wanted to contract them for the title. According to Colantonio, Bethesda's vice-president of development Todd Vaughn had seen Arkane's work in Arx Fatalis and its sequel, and while Bethesda had been interested in these, they did not react fast enough before Arkane had taken another route. Vaughn told Arkane that they were interested in publishing a first-person immersive game, and Arkane was the only option they had. Colantonio recognised Bethesda was the best fit for Arkane, considering the similarities between Arx Fatalis and The Elder Scrolls games. Arkane worked under contract for a few months but soon were fully acquired by ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent, by August 2010, as part of ZeniMax's larger growth after recently acquiring id Software. With financial backing and a parent company that appreciated good game design, Arkane had the time and creative freedom to revamp Bethesda's original concept for Dishonored based on the pitch that Colantonio and Smith had earlier developed, and moved the setting from Japan to one inspired by London while retaining the Dishonored name and stealth aspects. Dishonored was released in 2012. Smith moved to France to lead the Lyon studio in the sequel Dishonored 2 which was released in November 2016, while Colantonio stayed at the Austin studio to lead the development of Prey, a spiritual sequel of both System Shock and Arx Fatalis, that was released in 2017. Prey shared its name only with the intellectual property that ZeniMax had acquired from Human Head Studios and their 2005 Prey and cancelled Prey 2 games. In June 2017, about two months following Preys release, Colantonio announced he was stepping down as president of Arkane. He said in a statement: "It is time for me to step out to spend some time with my son and reflect on what is important to me and my future." Smith took over management of the