The developer of the originalThieftrilogy, Randy Smith, has recently gone on record explaining precisely the sort of game he’d make if he had the chance, and also offered his reasoning as to why he’s not already doing it. Smith’s tenure at Looking Glass Studios led to the creation of theThieffranchise, which is often cited as one of the major inspirations of contemporary immersive sim titles, such asDishonored.
Even thoughThiefis now far from the peak of its cultural relevancy, with 2014’s attempt at reviving the series ending up a failure, the legacy of the franchise does indeed live on. Even disregarding the entirety of Arkane Studios' output and the various standalone projects such asGloomwood,Thiefwas one of the first titles to depict stealth, which has grown to be a staple in a huge number of modern video games.
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In a recent interview with Rock Paper Shotgun, Randy Smith went into some detail on whatThiefmeant for him and how one of thegreatest stealth games of all timecame to be. One of the most interesting tidbits referred to a potential futureThiefinstallment, should Smith ever get control over the IP again. On that topic, he said that the game would focus on a ragtag group of thieves operating under the guidance of a mysterious master, who was implied to be the protagonist of the original games, Garrett himself. Smith also admitted that he’s not too keen on making that happen and that he’d rather give other developers the opportunity to try something similar, instead.
Most notably and perhaps entirely unsurprisingly, Smith admitted that he is a big fan ofArkane Studios' seminal hitDishonored. “I’m playingThief,” he said in the interview. “This is the experience other people have. And they’re right, it is really good.” Smith pointed out that it was impossible for him to seeThieffrom the same perspective as fans, since he worked on the original trilogy and therefore couldn’t view it as an impartial player.
As it currently stands, the latest piece ofThief-related news came out when Eidos Montreal CEO said thatThief5wasn’t being made, back in 2017. It seems unlikely that anything would’ve gone down in interim, and with Smith himself seemingly uninterested in revitalizing the franchise, it’s almost certain that nothing will happen with the IP for some time yet.
During his Looking Glass heyday, Randy Smith worked alongside Ken Levine, who ended up being equally influential in the gaming industry. Indeed, theBioshockcreator recently revealedJudas, an all-new first-person shooter that is almost sure to come up with its own take on the legendary game developers' immersive sim legacy.
