This studio which is the pride of France is in difficulty, nearly 70 jobs are threatened

Game news This studio which is the pride of France is in difficulty, nearly 70 jobs are threatened

From bad to worse

Remember Me, Life is Strange, Vampyr, Tell Me Why, Jusant, Banishers… you must have heard of one of these games at least once in your life. They all come from the Parisian studio Don’t Nod. In 2022, the group was changing its name and logo while it had its hard drives full of projects, eight scheduled to be released between 2022 and 2025. Today, the company has bad news to announce. In the publication of its 2024 half-year results, Oskar Guilbert, CEO of Don’t Nod, recognized results that “reflect the economic underperformance of the latest launches”. In other words, Jusant and Banishers did not meet management’s expectations. “The accounting impact“decisions made”to face an ultra-competitive and selective market” is also singled out by the group.

While Don’t Nod recorded a turnover of 2.6 million euros during the first half of 2023, it only recorded 1.8 million euros during the first half of 2024.The first measures to support performance, announced last spring, do not appear sufficient to preserve the competitiveness of the company” recognizes Oskar Guilbert, who can only observe a net loss of 42.3 million euros for this first half of 2024.

See Xbox Game Pass on Microsoft

Life is hard

So what can the studio do? Lighting candles so that Lost Records: Bloom & Rage sells well when it arrives in an already busy month of February 2025. And save money where you canparticularly in personnel costs. “In this context of degraded results and despite the actions already taken, the company finds itself forced to consider a reorganization project.” underlines the studio in its press release. Around 69 jobs are at risk, or around 20% of Don’t Nod’s workforce. This project would aim to “rationalize the number of company production lines“, of “find more organizational agility”, but also and above all “secure the company’s financing”.

“Management wishes to encourage dialogue with social partners with a view to reaching possible agreements relating in particular to social support measures including a potential voluntary departure plan which could be considered in the event of adoption of the project”, lit. Upset on the stock market for almost 2 years, the group’s shares fell 66% in one year. At the time of writing, it is worth 1.39 euros.