According to leadership at Dontnod Entertainment, the indie studio is dedicated to maintaining its independence despite receiving multiple acquisition propositions. The developer is arguably best known for its hit indie title Life Is Strange 2, which released its last episode in 2019, the series has recently seen a different developer take the helm.
Long-time publisher of Life Is Strange, Square Enix, held a presentation earlier this year which delved into the IP’s future. During the show, the company revealed that the a trailer to better acquaint fans of the series with Life Is Strange: True Colors’ lead, Alex Chen. Showing off some of the character’s background, as well as the title’s fantastic graphics, the nearly two-minute long trailer reveals the game’s opening.
Though moving away from the Life Is Strange franchise, Dontnot is making it clear that the studio will continue to provide games on its own , according to a recent interview with IGN. Over the course of the discussion, Oskar Guilbert, CEO at Dontnod, itted that more than one company has shown interest in scooping up the Life Is Strange creator recently. The CEO, however, does not mention by name which companies approached Dontnod, and it seems that the offers were not seriously entertained; the studio turned down every offer. As for why the companies were turned down, the CEO points to Dontnod’s unique catalogue of games and states that being acquired by a larger company could interfere with the studio’s plans to create these kinds of games in the future.
Dontnod does seem to have a lot on the horizon right now, recently revealing that it plans to launch remaster collection coming this Fall which will include an enhanced version of the original Life Is Strange.
Getting adequate funding is one of the biggest struggles that indie developers face, and often, being acquired by a larger company offers small developers some financial peace of mind. Though it is not always the case, Dontnod’s fear of being forced to turn its back on making games like Life Is Strange is not necessarily an unreasonable one, though luckily it seems like the studio is doing just fine independently.
Source: IGN
