Greedfall developer Spiders is being shut down

French game studio Spiders is shutting down, the Greedfall developer sadly being caught up in the financial calamity that parent company Nacon is going through.

Writing on social media, the studio gave a farewell message:

Hello everyone,

First off, we apologise for the silence over the past month – it’s been a while.

We’re going to cut straight to the chase so you’re not left wondering: After a long period without clear answers, we have received confirmation that Spiders is being liquidated.

What does it mean? This means the company as a whole no longer exists. We’ll cease our functions immediately. The planned DLC will release via Nacon, and then– well, that’s it.

We’re sorry that it’s come to this and would like to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years.

If you have any questions or run into issues with your games, please contact Nacon directly as we’ll no longer be able to reply

Reporting by French outlet Origami (via Eurogamer) suggests that Spiders was unable to secure further funding after filing for insolvency in March – this process occurring in parallel to Nacon’s own insolvency filing. With their most recent game shipping in March, funding would have likely hinged on future potential, and Origami reports that a ” “licensed game codenamed Dark”was cancelled last year, and was unable to convince with a newly developed game pitch to secure its future.

Spiders was founded in 2008, initially working primarily on ports of games like The Testament of Sherlock Holmes, and co-development for Of Orcs and Men with fellow French studio Cyanide. However, they soon put this to one side to focus on their homegrown RPGs and IPs, bouncing between the sci-fi of Mars: War Logs and The Technomancer and fantasy Bound by Flame.

Being acquired by Nacon months before the 2019 launch of GreedFall, the studio enjoyed its biggest success to date, both critically and commercially, with two million copies shipped by May 2022. After a dalliance with the Soulslike genre in Steelrising, 2022 was also when GreedFall: The Dying World was announced. That game, sadly, was not able to kick on from the success of the original. The early access release brought significant gameplay changes, from action to more tactical RPG combat, and the final reception was middling upon its release in March of this year.

That, of course, came after Nacon and all its subsidiary studios had been plunged into financial crisis, forcing everyone to file for insolvency with the French courts. Sadly, with the reports of a cancelled project and no new investment, Spiders has now closed.

It’s a sad time, and makes the futures of fellow Nacon studios Kylotonn and Cyanide look similarly shaky, but for now our thoughts are with those now looking for work and new opportunities.

Source: Spiders, Origami via Eurogamer

Tags: GreedFall, GreedFall 2, Greedfall: The Dying World, Nacon, Spiders, The Technomancer