Don't Nod Entertainment SA (formerlytraded asDontnod Entertainment) is a Frenchvideo game developer and publisher based in Paris. Founded in June 2008, it started development onRemember 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 developedLife Is Strange (episodically in 2015), whose successful release raised Don't Nod's industry status. It began third-party publishing withGerda: A Flame in Winter in 2022.
Dontnod developers receiving an award forLife Is Strange at the 2016Game Developers Choice Awards, with directors Raoul Barbet and Michel Koch and producer Luc Baghadoust present
Dontnod Entertainment was founded by Hervé Bonin, Aleksi Briclot,Alain Damasio, Oskar Guilbert and Jean-Maxime Moris on 1 May 2008,[3] alongside other formerCriterion Games,Ubisoft andElectronic Arts staff.[4][5] "Dontnod" is apalindrome devised by co-founderAlain Damasio.[6] Founding investment partners were Kostadin and Mariana Yaneva, Douglas and Claudie Hawes and Viktor Kalvachev.[7] Originally based in Quartier des Quinze-Vingts in the12th arrondissement, the studio moved into a new office in Quartier de la Villette in the19th arrondissement to accommodate the company's growth in late 2008.[8][9] The studio usedUnreal 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.[10][11][12]
Reorganisation,Life Is Strange andVampyr (2014–2018)
Dontnod's debut title wasRemember Me,[13] which would at first be aPlayStation 3-exclusiverole-playing game, but was dropped by publisherSony Interactive Entertainment in 2011 on account of cuts in funding. It was presented atGamescom the same year to attract another publishing deal; the following year,Capcom Europe acquired the rights and reimagined it as anaction-adventure game,[8][14][15] released in June 2013.[13][14] In 2013, Dontnod was the most subsidised studio with €600 000 aid by the French agencyCentre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC).[16] Including aid for a newintellectual property (IP) project codenamed "What if?" (laterLife Is Strange) for €200 000.[17] On 28 January 2014, Dontnod filed forredressement judiciaire ("judicial reorganisation"), a form ofreceivership in France; the proceeding was finalised in February 2018.[18][19] The proceeding filing was discovered byFactornews and some media outlets likePolygon reported it as Dontnod filing for bankruptcy as a result of the poor sales ofRemember Me.[20] Dontnod responded to these reports explaining that they were in the process of "judicial reorganisation" to resize the company and denying bankruptcy.[21][22][23]
In June 2014, Dontnod announced that they were working withSquare Enix Europe on a new game,[24] which was announced asLife Is Strange that year and released in 2015 over the course of five instalments.[25] The critical and commercial success ofLife Is Strange caused Dontnod to be solicited by publishers, whereas they previously had to pursue publishers themselves.[26]
Don't Nod's logo until May 2022
Guilbert said in April 2016 that the studio had cast off the ambition of makingtriple A games and would only see themselves devoted to independent projects,[13][27] in particular, original, narrative-driven intellectual properties, which narrative director Stéphane Beauverger agreed was "part of Dontnod's DNA".[8][28] The company's guiding principle is to reinvent itself with every game.[8] For the sake of maintaining the motivation of players and publishers, the production cycle since releasing the five-year commitmentRemember Me was reduced to two and a half or three years.[29] "Dontnod Days" are maintained for unsupervised work related to ongoing projects.[8] 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 renamedDontnod Eleven but remained an independent entity.[30][29]
Company floatation, Don't Nod Montréal, third-party publishing, and rebranding (2018–present)
In April 2018, Dontnod registered with the French stock market regulatorAutorité des marchés financiers to become apublic company. This came after aturnover of €9.7 million in 2017, a 33-per cent increase from the previous year.[31] Thesubscription period opened on 3 May 2018, with the first day of trading on 23 May. Listed onEuronext PME (nowEuronext 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 internalmotion capture studio cited among possibilities.[19][32] Despite Dontnod's public listing, Guilbert, together with investor Kostadin Yanev, intended to keep control over the company.[19] Around this time, the company employed 166 staff members.[19] The studio subsequently acquired Dontnod Eleven and absorbed its operations in June 2018.[33]
Dontnod releasedVampyr withFocus Home Interactive,[34][35] anaction role-playing game, in June 2018.[36] 70% of the studio's 120 employees (in 2016) were devoted to the development ofVampyr, many of whom had worked onLife Is Strange.[37] Guilbert later stated that the company would pursue aco-production strategy with future publishers, as was done forVampyr, limiting their part to forty per cent.[19] Each project begins with adesigner,writer, andart director, with the occasionalproducer or engineer.[32]The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit, set within theLife Is Strange universe, released in June 2018.[38] Dontnod started developingLife Is Strange 2 in early 2016, after its predecessor proved financially successful,[39][40][41] and was released episodically between September 2018 and December 2019.[42]
A subsidiary studio inMontreal, Canada, was announced in May 2020, adding to its more than 250 employees in France.[43][44] Dontnod worked withXbox Game Studios onTell Me Why, an episodic adventure game that was released between August and September 2020.[45] 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 byBandai Namco Entertainment.[46][47]
In January 2021, Dontnod announced thatTencent had acquired a minority stake in the company for€30 million, 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.[48] Dontnod stated in April they plan to expand their self-publishing capabilities to third-party publishing as well, with the first planned title fromCopenhagen-based studio PortaPlay.[49] In September, Dontnod made theirremote work policy (Fully Remote Organization scheme) permanent for all employees.[50]
On 31 May 2022, the company rebranded and changed its name to Don't Nod.[51] Its third-party publishing side released its first game,Gerda: A Flame in Winter in September 2022.[52] AtThe Game Awards in 2022, Don't Nod andFocus Entertainment revealedBanishers: Ghosts of New Eden, a spiritual successor toVampyr.[53][54] Don't Nod released thevisual novel gameHarmony: The Fall of Reverie in June 2023.[55] As theXbox Games Showcase that same month, Don't Nod announced thepuzzle gameJusant which was released in October 2023.[56] AtThe 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 firstLife Is Strange game, and is meant to kickstart its own universe.[57][58]Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was published by Focus Entertainment in February 2024.[59] In September, Don't Nod told investors thatJusant andBanishers did not meet expectations and that they are reworking future releases so they can appeal to a wider audience.[60] Around 100 employees took part in a strike against a redundancy plan bySyndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses du jeu vidéo in January 2025.[61]Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is set to be released in two parts with the first in February 2025 and the second later that April.[62] Don't Nod's third-party publishing side releasedKoira, developed by theBrussels-based Studio Tolima, in April 2025[63][64] and is set to releaseThe Lonesome Guild, developed by theTurin-basedTiny Bull Studios, in late 2025.[65]
€13.95 million[1] (2019)
€-0.09 million[1] (2019).jpg)
