Dontnod Entertainment

Don't Nod Entertainment SA (formerly traded as Dontnod Entertainment) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in June 2008, it started development on '' Remember Me'' (2013). Because of its poor return on investment, Don't Nod entered "judicial reorganisation" in 2013. With the help of French agency funding, it developed '' Life Is Strange'' (episodically in 2015), whose successful release raised Don't Nod's industry status. It began third-party publishing with '' Gerda: A Flame in Winter'' in 2022.

History

Founding and debut title (2008–2013)

Dontnod Entertainment was founded by Hervé Bonin, Aleksi Briclot, Alain Damasio, Oskar Guilbert and Jean-Maxime Moris on 1 May 2008, alongside other former Criterion Games, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts staff. "Dontnod" is a palindrome devised by co-founder Alain Damasio. Founding investment partners were Kostadin and Mariana Yaneva, Douglas and Claudie Hawes and Viktor Kalvachev. Originally based in Quartier des Quinze-Vingts in the 12th arrondissement, the studio moved into a new office in Quartier de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement to accommodate the company's growth in late 2008. The studio used Unreal Engine 3 for their first game, working with Epic Games' engineering team which leading to Epic extending Dontnod's UE3 evaluation and has since used the engine for all of its games.

Dontnod's debut title was '' Remember Me'', which would at first be a PlayStation 3-exclusive role-playing game, but was dropped by publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2011 on account of cuts in funding. It was presented at Gamescom the same year to attract another publishing deal; the following year, Capcom Europe acquired the rights and reimagined it as an action-adventure game, released in June 2013. In 2013, Dontnod was the most subsidised studio with €600 000 aid by the French agency Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC). Including aid for a new intellectual property (IP) project codenamed "What if?" (later ''Life Is Strange'') for €200 000.

Reorganisation, ''Life Is Strange'' and ''Vampyr'' (2014–2018)

On 28 January 2014, Dontnod filed for ''redressement judiciaire'' ("judicial reorganisation"), a form of receivership in France; the proceeding was finalised in February 2018. The proceeding filing was discovered by ''Factornews'' and some media outlets like Polygon reported it as Dontnod filing for bankruptcy as a result of the poor sales of ''Remember Me''. Dontnod responded to these reports explaining that they were in the process of "judicial reorganisation" to resize the company and denying bankruptcy.

In June 2014, Dontnod announced that they were working with Square Enix Europe on a new game, which was announced as '' Life Is Strange'' that year and released in 2015 over the course of five installments. The critical and commercial success of ''Life Is Strange'' caused Dontnod to be solicited by publishers, whereas they previously had to pursue publishers themselves. Guilbert said in April 2016 that the studio had cast off the ambition of making triple A games and would only see themselves devoted to independent projects, in particular, original, narrative-driven intellectual properties, which narrative director Stéphane Beauverger agreed was "part of Dontnod's DNA". The company's guiding principle is to reinvent itself with every game. For the sake of maintaining the motivation of players and publishers, the production cycle since releasing the five-year commitment ''Remember Me'' was reduced to two and a half or three years. "Dontnod Days" are maintained for unsupervised work related to ongoing projects. Dontnod announced in July 2016 that it had entered into a partnership with Hesaw, a Parisian game studio in which Guilbert also held a management role, that saw the latter renamed but remained an independent entity.

Company floatation, Don't Nod Montréal, third-party publishing, and rebranding (2018–present)

In April 2018, Dontnod registered with the French stock market regulator Autorité des marchés financiers to become a public company. This came after a turnover of €9.7 million in 2017, a 33-per cent increase from the previous year. The subscription period opened on 3 May 2018, with the first day of trading on 23 May. Listed on Euronext Growth, Dontnod raised the intended €20.1 million. 25 per cent of the funds were spent on finding another studio to partner with; according to Guilbert, the rest would allow further project investment as well as improvement and optimisation of production pipelines, with an internal motion capture studio cited among possibilities. Despite Dontnod's public listing, Guilbert, together with investor Kostadin Yanev, intended to keep control over the company. Around this time, the company employed 166 staff members. The studio subsequently acquired Dontnod Eleven and absorbed its operations in June 2018.

Dontnod released ''Vampyr'' with Focus Home Interactive, an action role-playing game, in June 2018. 70% of the studio's 120 employees (in 2016) were devoted to the development of ''Vampyr'', many of whom had worked on ''Life Is Strange''. Guilbert later stated that the company would pursue a co-production strategy with future publishers, as was done for ''Vampyr'', limiting their part to forty per cent. Each project begins with a designer, writer, and art director, with the occasional producer or engineer. '' The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit'', set within the ''Life Is Strange'' universe, released in June 2018. Dontnod started developing '' Life Is Strange 2'' in early 2016, after its predecessor proved financially successful, and was released episodically between September 2018 and December 2019.

A subsidiary studio in Montreal, Canada, was announced in May 2020, adding to its more than 250 employees in France. Dontnod worked with Xbox Game Studios on '' Tell Me Why'', an episodic adventure game that was released between August and September 2020. Later in December 2020, Dontnod published its first self-owned IP, '' Twin Mirror'', that they co-developed with Shibuya Productions and was originally going to be published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. In January 2021, Dontnod announced that Tencent had acquired a minority stake in the company for , granting the option to appoint a member to their board. The investment will allow Dontnod to continue self-publishing their titles and expand into China and the mobile game sector. Dontnod stated in April they plan to expand their self-publishing capabilities to third-party publishing as well, with the first planned title from Copenhagen-based studio PortaPlay. In September, Dontnod made their remote work policy (Fully Remote Organization scheme) permanent for all employees.

On 31 May 2022, the company rebranded and changed its name to Don't Nod. Its third-party publishing side released its first game, '' Gerda: A Flame in Winter'' in September 2022. At The Game Awards in 2022, Don't Nod and Focus Entertainment revealed '' Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden'', a spiritual successor to ''Vampyr''. Don't Nod released the visual novel game '' Harmony: The Fall of Reverie'' in June 2023. At the Xbox Games Showcase that same month, Don't Nod announced the puzzle game '' Jusant'' which was released in October 2023. At The Game Awards in 2023, Don't Nod revealed the narrative adventure video game, '' Lost Records: Bloom & Rage'', the first title developed by Don't Nod Montréal. Its development team included members of the original team that made the first ''Life Is Strange'' game, and is meant to kickstart its own universe. ''Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden'' was published by Focus Entertainment in February 2024. In September, Don't Nod told investors that ''Jusant'' and ''Banishers'' did not meet expectations and that they are reworking future releases so they can appeal to a wider audience. Around 100 employees took part in a strike against a redundancy plan by ''Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses du jeu vidéo'' in January 2025. ''Lost Records: Bloom & Rage'' was released in two parts with the first releasing in February 2025 and the second in April 2025. Don't Nod's third-party publishing side released ''Koira'', developed by the Brussels-based Studio Tolima, in April 2025, and is set to release ''The Lonesome Guild'', developed by the Turin-based Tiny Bull Studios, in late 2025. In June 2025, at the Xbox Games Showcase, the adventure game ''Aphelion'' was announced and is set to be released in 2026.

Games developed

Games published

References

External links

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Companies based in Paris
Companies listed on Euronext Paris
French companies established in 2008
Tencent
Video game companies established in 2008
Video game companies of France
Video game development companies