Dontnod Entertainment (2008–2022) | |
Company type | Public |
Euronext: ALDNE | |
ISIN | FR0013331212 |
Industry | Video games |
Founded | 1 May 2008 |
Founders |
|
Headquarters | , France |
Number of locations | 2 studios (2022) |
Key people | |
Revenue | €13.95 million [1] (2019) |
€-0.09 million [1] (2019) | |
Owner | |
Number of employees | 320 (2022 [2] ) |
Website | dont-nod.com |
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.
Dontnod Entertainment was founded by Hervé Bonin, Aleksi Briclot, Alain Damasio, Oskar Guilbert and Jean-Maxime Moris on 1 May 2008, [3] alongside other former Criterion Games, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts staff. [4] [5] "Dontnod" is a palindrome devised by co-founder Alain Damasio. [6] 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. [7] [8] 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. [9] [10] [11]
Dontnod's debut title was Remember Me , [12] 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, [7] [13] [14] released in June 2013. [12] [13] 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). [15] Including aid for a new intellectual property (IP) project codenamed "What if?" (later Life is Strange) for €200 000. [16] On 28 January 2014, Dontnod filed for redressement judiciaire ("judicial reorganisation"), a form of receivership in France; the proceeding was finalised in February 2018. [17] [18] 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. [19] Dontnod responded to these reports explaining that they were in the process of "judicial reorganisation" to resize the company and denying bankruptcy. [20] [21] [22] In June 2014, Dontnod announced that they were working with Square Enix Europe on a new game, [23] which was announced as Life Is Strange that year and released in 2015 over the course of five instalments. [24] The critical and commercial success of Life Is Strange caused Dontnod to be solicited by publishers, whereas they previously had to pursue publishers themselves. [25]
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, [12] [26] in particular, original, narrative-driven intellectual properties, which narrative director Stéphane Beauverger agreed was "part of Dontnod's DNA". [7] [27] The company's guiding principle is to reinvent itself with every game. [7] 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. [28] "Dontnod Days" are maintained for unsupervised work related to ongoing projects. [7]
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 Dontnod Eleven but remained an independent entity. [29] [28] 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. [30] The subscription period opened on 3 May 2018, with the first day of trading on 23 May. Listed on Euronext PME (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. [18] [31] Despite Dontnod's public listing, Guilbert, together with investor Kostadin Yanev, intended to keep control over the company. [18] Around this time, the company employed 166 staff members. [18] The studio subsequently acquired Dontnod Eleven and absorbed its operations in June 2018. [32] Dontnod released Vampyr with Focus Home Interactive, [33] [34] an action role-playing game, in June 2018. [35] 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. [36] The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit , set within the Life Is Strange universe, released in June 2018. [37] Dontnod started developing Life Is Strange 2 in early 2016, after its predecessor proved financially successful, [38] [39] [40] release episodically between September 2018 and December 2019. [41]
In 2018, Guilbert said the company would pursue a co-production strategy with future publishers, as was done for Vampyr, limiting their part to forty per cent. [18] Each project begins with a designer, writer, and art director, with the occasional producer or engineer. [31]
Dontnod worked with Xbox Game Studios on Tell Me Why , an episodic adventure game that was released between August and September 2020. [42] 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. [43] [44] A subsidiary studio in Montreal, Canada, was announced in May 2020, adding to its more than 250 employees in France. [45] [46] In January 2021, Dontnod announced that Tencent 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. [47] Dontnod stated in April 2021 they plan to expand their self-publishing capabilities to third-party publishing as well, with the first planned title from Copenhagen-based studio PortaPlay. [48] In September 2021, Dontnod made their remote work policy (Fully Remote Organization scheme) permanent for all employees. [49]
On 31 May 2022, the company changed its name to Don't Nod. [50] Its third-party publishing side released its first game, Gerda: A Flame in Winter in September 2022. [51] At The Game Awards in 2022, Don't Nod and Focus Entertainment revealed Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden , a spiritual successor to Vampyr. [52] [53] Don't Nod released the visual novel game Harmony: The Fall of Reverie in June 2023. As the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, Don't Nod announced the puzzle game Jusant which was released in October 2023. [54] At The Game Awards in 2023, Don't Nod revealed the narrative adventure video game, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage . It is being developed by Don't Nod Montréal, with members of the original team that made the first Life Is Strange game, and is meant to kickstart its own universe. [55] [56] Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden was published by Focus Entertainment in February 2024. [57] Around 100 employees took part in a strike against a redundancy plan by Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses du jeu vidéo in January 2025. [58] Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is set to be released in two parts with the first in February 2025 and the second later that April. [59]
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher(s) |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Remember Me | PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360 | Capcom |
2015 | Life Is Strange | Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Square Enix |
2018 | Vampyr | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | Focus Home Interactive |
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit | PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | Square Enix | |
2018–2019 | Life Is Strange 2 | Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | |
2020 | Tell Me Why | Windows, Xbox One | Xbox Game Studios |
Twin Mirror | PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One | Dontnod Entertainment | |
2023 | Harmony: The Fall of Reverie | Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Don't Nod |
Jusant | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | ||
2024 | Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Focus Entertainment |
2025 | Lost Records: Bloom & Rage | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S | Don't Nod |
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Developer(s) |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Gerda: A Flame in Winter | Nintendo Switch, Windows | PortaPlay |
2025 | Koira | Windows | Studio Tolima |
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Remember Me is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Capcom. The game's plot focuses on Nilin, a memory hunter working for an underground resistance called the Errorists. When the game starts, she has been stripped of nearly all her memories by megacorporation Memorize. With the help of a mysterious man named Edge, she goes on a quest to bring down Memorize and recover her lost memories. Throughout the story, she is permitted to use her Memory Remix power to ultimately refurbish people's recollections. The combat consists of a modified combo system called Pressen.
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Vampyr is an action role-playing video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Focus Home Interactive. It was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 5 June 2018, and for Nintendo Switch on 29 October 2019. The plot relates how Jonathan Reid, a doctor who has turned into a vampire, is torn between the Hippocratic Oath and his newfound bloodthirsty nature.
Life Is Strange 2 is an episodic adventure game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. Its five episodes were released between September 2018 and December 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One and later for Linux, macOS and Nintendo Switch. As a main sequel in the Life Is Strange series, the game's plot features Hispanic American brothers Sean and Daniel as they travel along the US West Coast as fugitives from the police after the younger brother discovers his telekinetic abilities. In the game, which is played from a third-person perspective, Sean must make crucial decisions that will lead to different branches in the storyline, while serving as a surrogate parent for Daniel.
Chloe Elizabeth Price is a fictional character from the Life Is Strange video game series published by Square Enix. Created by French developer Dontnod Entertainment, she first appears in the 2015 video game Life Is Strange and its prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm as the main protagonist. She is portrayed by Ashly Burch and Rhianna DeVries.
Twin Mirror is a 2020 adventure game by Dontnod Entertainment. Co-produced with Shibuya Productions, the game was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 1 December 2020. It received mixed reviews from critics.
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is a demo adventure game in the Life Is Strange series developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. It was released in June 2018 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One as an introduction to Life Is Strange 2. The plot follows Chris Eriksen, a young boy who creates the superhero alter ego Captain Spirit to deal with the loss of his mother. Square Enix External Studios worked with Dontnod for the development. The game received generally favourable reviews, praising the narrative, main character, and script, but criticising the game mechanics and aspects of the writing.
Tyler Ronan is a fictional character and the co-protagonist of the 2020 episodic narrative adventure game Tell Me Why, a three-part narrative video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Xbox Game Studios in 2020. Tell Me Why follows Tyler and his twin sister Alyson as they revisit their childhood home following a long separation. The game's narrative moves between the past and present, as the twins utilize their supernatural telepathic bond to explore memories of their past, some of it repressed, in an attempt to piece together the details of the tragic event that irrevocably impact both of their lives. Tyler Ronan is voiced by American actor August Aiden Black, who is a trans man like the character he portrays.
Life Is Strange is a series of adventure games published by Square Enix's External Studios. Created by Dontnod Entertainment, the series debuted with the eponymous first installment, which was released in five episodes throughout 2015. It was followed by a prequel, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, which was developed by Deck Nine and released in three episodes throughout 2017, with a downloadable content (DLC) bonus episode released in early 2018. The sequel Life Is Strange 2 and its spin-off The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit were developed by Dontnod and released between 2018 and 2019. A third main installment, Life Is Strange: True Colors, was released in its entirety on 10 September 2021. A fourth installment, Life Is Strange: Double Exposure, was released on October 29, 2024. Additionally, a remastered collection of the original game and its prequel was released in February 2022.
Maxine "Max" Caulfield is a fictional character from the Life Is Strange video game series published by Square Enix. Created by French developer Dontnod Entertainment, she is the player character in Life Is Strange (2015) and its sequel Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (2024). She is portrayed by Hannah Telle.
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Rachel Dawn Amber is a fictional character in the Life Is Strange video game series by Square Enix. Created by Dontnod Entertainment for the original Life Is Strange game released in 2015, Rachel's character was expanded upon by Deck Nine for a prequel game titled Life Is Strange: Before the Storm released in 2017. She is voiced by actress Kylie Brown.
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