Zenimax now owns Arkane Studios, and their projects prior to acquisition have fallen off the face of the earth. What really made me wonder is one description about the combat system that mentions throwing oil on enemies so you can set them on fire (one of Dark Messiah's recurring gimicks). What made me ask is that I noticed the animation for Dark Messiah's "fireball" spell in the recent "gameplay" trailer.

No official word. Maybe Gstaff or a dev would be willing and able to answer your question. Try pming them. or heck, use twitter.

I wouldn't care. I liked Dark Messiah's gameplay, despite being a linear variation of a common shooter.

Most people are going to tell you no, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had some input.

[citation needed]

I very much doubt it, they are probably working on some unannounced project of their own instead.

Doesn't mean they couldn't of had some input right?

I will wager Bethesda nabbed the long dead ultima licence from EA.(I know the crappy browser game does not count),or they have access to it. Obsidian is working on dungeon siege so anything is possible.

That would be huge news if they did. I don't think that is something that they would keep secret; they didn't with the Fallout franchise.

Like Todd, having grown up on the Ultima series, I'd love for them to do it. I'd love to see what Todd and company could do to such a historic franchise.

Yes thats is, DM was awesome in action but RPG part suffer from simplification, I wish Skyrim will not repeat this, like
Arx Fatalis 2 downgraded to Dark Messiah.

Have you played Dark Messiah? Convenient oil flasks were all around (mostly when there wasn't stuff to kick people into).

Arx Fatalis was awesome.

Arkane's working on their own projects, just like id is, but Todd's mentioned a few times that he's consulted with John Carmack regarding technical stuff (like shadows, for instance), so i'd be genuinely surprised if they didn't consult with Arkane for ideas, especially considering some of the things they're adding with Skyrim (cooking, crafting, woodcutting) are totally Ultima Underworld/Arx Fatalis territory, and Harvey and Raphael are masters of the immersive sim.

i've said this before, but i've seen the core ideas behind Skyrim's combat summed up as "Dark Messiah with shieldbashing instead of kicking", so they've likely had some input regrading how combat plays out, too.

also i'm so totally pumped for Arkane's unannounced project. i don't even care what it is, i just know it'll be fantastic.