A run of flops has been impossible to ignore inside DON’T NOD — morale is frayed, and people are talking. The studio’s own recent reports make it worse: cash is dangerously low, and time is short.
Numbers: about €8.8M left (≈ €8.8M). At the current burn rate, those funds could be gone by Nov. The largest backer, Tencent, has declined to increase funding, leaving the studio little wiggle room. Hiring freezes, cost-cutting and talks with potential new investors are underway, but so far no deal has appeared.
A rescue plan is due at the shareholders’ meeting on June 17. Meanwhile, management is pitching options — outsourcing parts of development, and pulling forward the launch of the next project, codename P14 — yet the auditor cautions those steps won’t be enough on their own.
The most recent release, the sci‑fi adventure Aphelion, landed a few months back and underperformed: lukewarm reviews and very low online player counts. Employees see the gap between ambition and reality up close; the scramble now is as much about survival as about making the next title work.