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Deathloop director Dinga Bakaba moves up to studio head of Arkane Lyon

Bakaba will still be co-creative director at Arkane Lyon while moving up to the studio director position left by former head Romuald Capron.

TJ Denzer

November 9, 2021 9:20 AM

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Dinga Bakaba has been a common name among the conversations regarding Arkane over the last year. He was, after all, the co-director of the impeccable Deathloop alongside Sébastien Mitton. Bakaba was also a front-facing lead in interviews, previews, and communication from Arkane regarding Deathloop over its development cycle. Now, he’s going to be moving into a more prominent role at Arkane Lyon, taking up the studio head role vacated by Romuald Capron.

Dinga Bakaba’s move up to the Arkane Lyon studio director role was revealed recently, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. Effective immediately, Bakaba will take up the role that was formerly held by Romuald Capron for 17 years. Capron left the role shortly after Deathloop’s launch in September, claiming that while it was a hard decision to make, he was ultimately “feeling the need to try something new and also have a bit more time for me and my family.”

Bakaba has been on deck since 2010 at Arkane Lyon where he started as a systems designer and producer on the original Dishonored. He since worked as a lead designer on Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider and game director on Wolfenstein: Youngblood. Despite moving up to his new role as studio director at Arkane Lyon, he will still operate as a co-creative director to Sébastien Mitton on further projects.

Deathloop was a rather impeccable showing for Bakaba and Mitton. In our Shacknews review, we found it to be a fantastic cornucopia of both old and new Arkane design brought together alongside a very interesting premise. Simply put, we’ll probably be talking about it in our Game of the Year conversations.

With Bakaba moving up at Arkane Lyon, we’re sure to see more of him in future projects from the studio. Stay tuned as we continue to watch for the latest from Bakaba, Arkane Lyon, and Bethesda, right here at Shacknews.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.