Hella growth
The Dontnod family got a little bit bigger today. The French developer known for Life is Strange and Remember Me brought another studio in under its umbrella and renamed it Dontnod Eleven.
In a press release, it was announced that the company formerly known as Hesaw is joining the Dontnod team. It’s unclear if this was a financial acquisition of sorts. The news was positioned in such a way that it seems as if the two had collaborated on some projects, so they just decided to make it more official.
As for Dontnod’s motives, it appears that the point of this initiative is to self-publish games on Steam. All of its titles thus far have been large undertakings that have required backing from big publishers like Square Enix or Focus Home Interactive. This new team seems to be designated with the task of driving revenue by pumping out smaller indie games that Dontnod can support.
Dontnod Eleven’s first game under the new banner was revealed alongside this announcement. It’s called Battlecrew Space Pirates and it’s a multiplayer shooter. It won’t be long before you can see the fruits of this endeavor, because the game is said to be on Steam Early Access “soon.” This new group may have the Dontnod name, but it remains to be seen if it can capture that Dontnod charm.