Cyanide SA (also known as Cyanide Studio) is a French

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in the

Nanterre Nanterre (; ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, b ...

suburb of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The company was founded in 2000 by Patrick Pligersdorffer, formerly of

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Anno (video game series), Anno'', ' ...

. Since 2007, Cyanide operates a second studio, Amusement Cyanide, in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada, and employs a total of 110 staff members as of 2018. Cyanide was acquired by French publisher Bigben Interactive (now

Nacon Nacon SA (formerly Bigben Interactive SA) is a French video game publisher, holdings company and gaming peripherals manufacturer based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for va ...

) in May 2018. Big Bad Wolf, founded in 2015 at Bordeaux, and Rogue Factor, founded in 2013 at Montréal, are branches of Cyanide.

History

Before founding Cyanide, Patrick Pligersdorffer began working in the

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

with

, where he assisted the opening of an internal development studio in Japan. After leaving Ubi Soft, Pligersdorffer established Cyanide in

in 2000. In November 2007, Cyanide announced that they had set up a new studio in

, Canada. At the time, the new studio, known as Amusement Cyanide, was tasked with creating a new proprietary 3D animation engine for a game that was in development at Cyanide's headquarters. On 14 May 2018, French publisher Bigben Interactive (now

) announced that they had wholly acquired Cyanide for a total sum of . By this time, Cyanide employed 110 people in its two studios.

Focus Home Interactive Focus Entertainment (formerly Focus Home Interactive) is a French video game publisher based in Paris. It is a subsidiary of PulluP Entertainment Group. Founded in 1996, Focus has published and distributed original titles such as ''Sherlock Holm ...

, Cyanide's primary publisher, previously also attempted to take over the studio, but the move was rejected by the publisher's supervisory board, which eventually led to the resignation of Focus Home Interactive's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

, Cédric Lagarrigue.

Developed titles

Games by Cyanide

Games by Amusement Cyanide

Games by Big Bad Wolf

Games by Rogue Factor

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Île-de-France Nanterre Video game companies established in 2000 French companies established in 2000 Video game companies of France Video game development companies 2018 mergers and acquisitions Nacon