Marvel's Blade game shows signs of life from Bethesda's Todd Howard

Bethesda's Todd Howard says developer Arkane is 'doing a really, really great job'

Arkane Lyon and Bethesda Softworks announced Marvel's Blade almost three years ago at the 2023 The Game Awards. Both companies have been largely quiet about it since, and some potential players wondered if the game was secretly canceled after it no-showed during the recent Xbox Games Showcase stream. Now, in a new interview, Bethesda Softworks head Todd Howard assuaged those fears and confirmed the game is still alive.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly as part of a larger story about the state of Xbox, Howard gave an update on Marvel's Blade. He said he's "not at liberty to say when [we'll see more]" of the game, but that he saw "some stuff" recently and "the folks at Arkane are doing a really, really great job."

Howard's update isn't much, but, as far as reporting about Microsoft's studios and games goes this month, it's better than the alternative (or whatever the fate of Marvel Studios' long-in-development Blade movie is).

As it's possible Arkane didn't even go into full production on Marvel's Blade until late 2024 (a year after its reveal), a sparse update at this point isn't terribly surprising. Game development timelines have grown considerably this generation, and, assuming all goes well, Marvel's Blade could potentially still be years away. Take another superhero game for example: Insomniac's PlayStation 5-exclusive Marvel's Wolverine was announced in September 2021, five years before its upcoming September 2026 release.

Still, superhero fans wanting to play games starring their favorite comic book characters have grown weary. EA announced a Black Panther game in 2023, and it would have reportedly featured a new spin on Monolith Productions' Nemesis System. It was canceled in 2025. Speaking of Monolith — it announced a Wonder Woman game in 2021, also at The Game Awards. The game was canceled and the studio shut down in 2025.

For now, though, Marvel's Blade is alive and Arkane is chugging along. No platforms were attached to Marvel's Blade when it was announced, so it's possible it could be an Xbox-console exclusive or come to PlayStation and/or Nintendo Switch 2, like Bethesda's Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. For those looking for a Blade video game to play in the immediate, he starred in the ensemble Marvel's Midnight Suns, which is fantastic.