Dontnod Turned Down Multiple Acquisition Offers

Nowadays, it's not unheard of for a successful independent video game developer to be acquired by a larger company. However, some game developers like Dontnod Entertainment, developers of the episodic Life is Strange, continue to retain independence in the gaming industry.

Over the years, Dontnod Entertainment has continued to release several other video games, including Vampyr and Tell Me Why from last year. However, the developer also strove to maintain its status as an independent game developer at the same time. According to a recent interview with IGN, Dontnod had also turned down multiple acquisition proposals to stay independent.

During the interview, Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert said that the company had been approached by multiple companies that wanted to acquire the developer. However, Dontnod turned them all down largely to keep the developer independent. Guilbert said that it was important that the game developer keep its unique identity in the gaming industry.

According to Guilbert, it is also to maintain Dontnod's unique brand of video games, allowing the developers to make games that players can immediately tell are made by Dontnod, like the recent release of Twin Mirror. Guilbert said that it's important for the developer to continue refining the Dontnod brand of video games, and that it's important to the developers to keep making the games they want to make.

Guilbert and Dontnod's Head of Publishing, Xavier Spinat, stated that the company is aware that doing so is challenging but feels it is worthwhile. At the time of writing, Dontnod Entertainment has close to 250 employees who are all working on developing six new video games, with five in its Paris headquarters and the sixth in its new Montreal studio. According to the interview, Dontnod isn't trying to work on too many video games or overpromise anything, it's taking things at its own pace to release new games.

Spinat said that Dontnod doesn't want to become a company that's repeatedly publishing "10 games per year" and wants to ensure its games continue to "maintain consistency and quality" moving forward. Part of that also means not making the company over-reliant on one single game title to be successful. As such, the company is branching out its business with self-publishing as well as third-party publishing with the independent developer PortaPlay.

This way, Dontnod Entertainment can make sure that one video game title doesn't make or break the company's success, and diversifying its business will help keep it stable and independent. According to Spinat, the developer is aiming to work on several balanced game projects instead of one big game after another.

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