Arkane Lyon may have a future outside Microsoft after all. According to a new report, Ubisoft is among multiple suitors preparing bids to purchase the French studio from Xbox, which is reportedly looking to offload the developer.

Arkane Lyon is best known for the Dishonored series and is currently working on Marvel's Blade, a project the studio is trying to finish amid the uncertainty around its ownership. The reporting suggests several companies have made offers, and one scenario on the table would see the studio go independent rather than land at a new corporate parent.

The prospect of Ubisoft ownership is a striking one for fans of the immersive-sim specialist — a studio whose design sensibilities have historically run counter to the Assassin's Creed maker's open-world formula. Still, for a team whose fate under Microsoft has looked shaky, serious interest from multiple buyers is a better position than most shuttered or stranded Xbox studios have found themselves in.

Nothing is final: the reports describe offers and preparations to bid, not a completed deal. But the signal is clear — Microsoft appears willing to part with one of its most distinctive studios, and the market for Arkane is real.