Don't Nod 'Disappointed' by Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, Jusant Sales

Two projects on ice, two more will be "reoriented to reach a wider audience"

by · Push Square

Don't Nod, the publisher/developer best known for its Life is Strange series, has revealed that its most recent efforts, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Jusant, while critical hits, "disappointed" in terms of sales. Interestingly, the company saw an increase in sales overall, mainly driven by its back catalogue, with Vampyr and Life is Strange buttressing Banishers, which "performed well below expectations".

The news comes from a Don't Nod press release, in which the firm advises investors of its Q1 and Q2 financials for 2024. Two of the company's undisclosed projects will be "reoriented to reach a wider audience", with another two being indefinitely put on ice. Don't Nod is seemingly putting a lot of eggs in the Lost Records: Bloom & Rage basket, with a lot of hope riding on its performance.

In the release, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Oskar Guilbert said: "We are obviously disappointed by our recent performance in an extremely competitive and selective market. Despite an excellent critical reception, Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, unfortunately, did not achieve the commercial results we had hoped for, resulting in a deterioration in our 2024 half-year results and leading us to consider all possible options regarding our roadmap."

Related Articles

News DON'T NOD Delays the Promising Lost Records on PS5 to Avoid New Life Is Strange

Record scratch

Did you pick up Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden or Jusant? Are you surprised that Don't Nod's back catalogue seemingly keeps the company afloat? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source dontnod-bourse.com, via resetera.com]

  • Share:
  • 89

About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

Comments 29

Nods

Actually, I don't know that I've even heard of either of these releases, and I'm online all the time. The marketing must not have been great.

Banishers is a great game with a different approach to the ghost theme and an emotional core. Hope it finds an audience overtime. It deserves it.

I have really liked Dontnod’s games. I thought Remember Me was actually underrated. I never got around to playing Vampyr though.

But all of their games I’ve played I think I got through PS+. Perhaps I’m part of the problem.

Ha! I totally didn't know Banishers was already out since February! =P

I’ve genuinely never heard of either of these games.

I bought them both. Love Dontnod. Bought Banishers at launch and still haven’t played it, not sure why. I have a hard time staying up late to play the games too scary for my kids perhaps? I played through Jusant at launch though. Really unique game. I’m definitely buying Lost Records Day 1. Can’t wait for it! Sad they delayed it to avoid competing against LiS.

@awp69 Couldn’t agree more. It wound up being one of my favorites of the year and one of those rare games that rattled around in my head even when I wasn’t playing it. It also has some of the best voice acting I can remember. Really glad I took a chance on it.

Jusant being on GamePass couldn't have helped its sales.

I've seen Banisher trailer and it doesn't like my cup of tea. I also played Vampyr from PS+ and i'm not sure what that makes me stop playing the game. But i finished Life of Strange 1 and i quite like it.

I planned on Banishers but all the reviews said the combat wasn’t great so I passed. Jusant is still in my wishlist but I have so many frigging games right now that it can just wait for the foreseeable future.

I've been waiting for a good sale on Banishers. Jusant just never looked appealing to me. Bummer their games aren't finding an audience, I really appreciate them working in this like AA space.

Banishers is on my Wish List, I’m just waiting for a sale. Didn’t look like a full price purchase type of game.

@Ralizah this is what I was going to say. You can't just put games out there and hope, especially now there's just so many games out there.

Jusant was really good, but it was also on game pass. Banishers kind of just got a small bit of coverage on hardcore gaming websites and blended into the background.

@Th3solution perhaps, perhaps not. I don't think the user is the problem, but the system itself. Subscriptions, for one, make you realise just how many god damn games there are, which probably doesn't help 😅 in some cases it will help smaller titles, but with so much choice how is anyone ever going to play them.

I think subscriptions need to go a way for a while and have a good long talk to themselves. And maybe come back as a premium product with well thought out, specially picked selections made by people who play games themselves. Titles being on for a shorter amount of time with new headliners each month that get people interested. A much more artisan approach to gaming than the netflix tv "shove a bunch of generic, broad appeal s*** at peoples faces, and 20 times as much niche sh**, but then throw a few good shows in there every so often" approach.

Not to mention the fact that people have been conditioned to only want to play games if they can play 4 AAA titles for £2... That definitely doesn't help 💀

It would probably sell better if it would ever go on sale!

I didn't even hear of Jusant but I thought I did remember seeing something about Banishers a while back. Ultimately, I forgot it existed and don't think I'll be picking up either.

I didn't know it came out, no ads or anything.

It got mostly positive reviews on steam. It has a demo, so I will give it a go and see if it's for me.

Banishers was excellent but definitely had some bugs during the initial launch. My biggest complaint is that the camps were too far from each other.

I completed Vampyr earlier this year and really enjoyed it. I have been holding off grabbing Banishers as I was hoping they would localise it for Japan.
If Dontnod release a remaster of Remember Me I will gladly buy it since it was criminally overlooked at the tail-end of the PS3’s life. I loved the concept of altering memories and the setting of Neo Paris was brilliant. I even bought the art book!

@Ravix There's so many games now.

And, frankly, so many decent to great ones. More than people could play in a lifetime.

You really have to stand out. It's hard to do that if you're not a major developer.

Hopefully they figure it out. Jusant was always gonna be a more niche game and Banishers came out at a bad time.

@Ralizah you never heard both of the games? I guess you are living in under the rock lol

I'm actually playing Banishers right now, and I'm over 60h already. I'm really enjoying my time with it. The main characters are very likeable and their relationship really solid. The haunting cases are very interesting, they're all quite different from one another, even if some of them are predictable. I like solving these cases and getting to decide at the end of each one of them if i banish or ascend the ghosts (or do worse with the living). I also like that some of these cases actually connects with the main story, and i like how every now and them (based on a choice that i made) the game points its finger at me to remind me how sh*tty i am

The exploration is pretty much God of Warlite (2018) and the combat is OK, even though it can be quite frustrating at times when you're facing tougher foes. Voice acting is top notch. Most dialogues are really well written. Performance is kinda mid, but this is one of those Unreal Engine 5 games (aka the most unstable engine ever) so i can get past the framerate drops

If the last part of the game is as good as the rest of it and if the story ends on a high note, then this can be easily a 9/10 for me and my personal GOTY contender

It's funny how i hated Life is Strange so much to the point that i consider it top 5 worst games i ever played, and yet Vampyr and this game here, especially, are very very very good

Too bad it didn't sell so well. People need to know about this game more

Unfortunate. Well reviewed games too.

@windxtravelerx
A rare fellow Vampyr fan. ^5

@TicklefistCP indeed i am (or we are haha). I'm also glad that Don't Nod released a patch to play this game at 60fps on PS5. They could've just ignore this game and move on, but they didn't and that's very nice of them

An absolutely atrocious release date for Banishers unfortunately sealed it's fate before it even came out, so they should've expected low sales for that despite it receiving positive reviews. That's on them for releasing it in February. Jusant was never going to be a big seller.

Dont nod make great games i

its a sad state of the industry that despite making good/ great games they still cant find a market

Casualties of the modern approach of "I'll wait until its on Game Pass/PS Plus", at least for me.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden looks good and is on my wishlist, and I've been playing Dontnod games since Remember Me (ironically also via PS Plus).

I absolutely loved Jusant. Gaming is getting so crowded, gems like this are falling through the cracks.

Show Comments

Leave A Comment

Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...

Related Articles

Sony Pulled Bungie's Head Out of Its Ass, and an Ex-Lawyer Reckons That Was a Good Thing"It was important to pretend that 'nothing would change'"Khayl Adam, 17 Sep 2024The Game Awards Host Geoff Keighley and Parody Site Hard Drive Are BeefingDidn't see that comingSammy Barker, 16 Sep 2024Vince Zampella Defends PS5 Pro Price, Says 'It's Actually Not That Bad'"Would it be better if it was cheaper? Sure"Khayl Adam, 18 Sep 2024