Update: Remember Me Developer Dontnod 'Not Bankrupt'

[Alex Co]

Update: Remember Me Developer Dontnod 'Not Bankrupt'

Multiple French media outlets are reporting that Dontnod Entertainment has filed for "redressement judiciaire," which is the French equivalent of bankruptcy.

Update: Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert claims that the company is not bankrupt, but going through a French court procedure called "judicial reorganization."

"We started new projects and those new projects need some investment and we decided to resize the company in order to match these new needs," he told GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-31-dontnod-ceo-there-is-no-bankruptcy] That's why we needed judicial reorganization."

A judicial administrator will be appointed to keep an eye on company company operations, making sure that Dontnod is judicious in its expenditures.

Original story: Dontnod Entertainment, who developed Remember Me for Capcom last year, is apparently closing its doors. Multiple French legal and financial domain Societe [http://www.factornews.com/news-39397-Don_t_Nod_en_redessement_judiciaire.html#.UuupWRCSw6x], who also mentions that Dontnod has filed for bankruptcy and that legal representatives have already been assigned to the case.

Dontnod Entertainment was founded by former Criterion boss Oskar Guilbert, with Remember Me as the studio's sole title that saw a retail release.

We'll update the post as more news becomes available.

Remember Me casts players in the role of Nilin, a memory hunter working for an underground resistance called the "Errorists," who's been stripped of her recollections by the corporation "Memorize." During the course of the title, Nilin goes up against Memorize and battles to recover her lost memories.

If you want to know more about the action game, read The Escapist's review where it's said that it February's Instant Game Collection. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/10362-Remember-Me-Review-Sadly-Forgettable]

Source: Videogamer [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/209759/Remember_Me_studio_Dontnod_files_for_bankruptcy__report.php]

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[ShirowShirow]

That's a shame. Remember Me, uh, kind of sucked but it wasn't completely without merit.

The merit certainly wasn't in the wannabe Arkham city combat or wanabe Uncharted platforming though.

 

[Maxtro]

Remember Me developer files for bankruptcy.

Remember Me free on PS+

Something seems off about that timing....

 

[Alex Co]

Remember Me developer files for bankruptcy.

Remember Me free on PS+

Something seems off about that timing....

Yeah, and there's a joke somewhere there about "Remember Me" and a studio closing...but I wouldn't go that far in a post.

 

[Kegluneq]

I actually quite enjoyed it, although I'm glad I didn't pay full retail price for it. The combat was pretty bland and formulaic, but it was an incredibly attractive game and the story had a strong cyberpunk feel. I'd have been interested in a sequel certainly.

 

[Andy Shandy]

A real shame. I personally loved Remember Me. Really interesting concept, with a decent story, a good combat system (or at least I enjoyed it) and a fantastic soundtrack.

I definitely recommend that those with PS Plus pick it up and give it a shot, at least.

 

[Angelous Wang]

I loved the art style and the memory remixes parts of this game, the rest was pretty meh.

But really they deserve this, I completed the game on Memory Hunter mode in 9 hours (according to steam counter), hell probably less than that since I afk'd to eat for at least an hour and spent at least another hour looking through all the artwork and models after I finished it.

And it's not like I rushed at all, I actually walked Nilian almost the whole game and watched all the cutscenes and everything.

 

[synobal]

Guess the publishers were right after all huh? Anyone Remember This: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122787-Prospective-Publishers-Wanted-a-Male-Centric-Remember-Me

Well, this is just the latest failure of a game with a "female protagonist" to actually perform on the market, but other studios go on ahead and follow this model targeting the "feminist" market of video games, see where that leads them.
http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2012/03/20/hydrophobia-developer-shuts-down/
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,691770/Velvet-Assassin-makers-are-broke-Replay-Studios-are-closing-down/News/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129370-Ubisoft-Considers-Beyond-Good-Evil-a-Mistake
http://mynintendonews.com/2013/04/17/platinum-games-talk-about-sales-struggles-and-low-bayonetta-sales/

What was the definition of insanity again?

Ya clearly that is because all the protagonists were women not anything else. After all game development is easy and even people who make a genuinely good game always see instant financial success. Damn women you put them in a game and they bankrupt you.

Indeed there has never been a profitable game with a female protagonist. Indeed I bet it is because all the extra money one has to spend modeling and texturing breasts. Damn women!

 

[Grabehn]

Guess the publishers were right after all huh? Anyone Remember This: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122787-Prospective-Publishers-Wanted-a-Male-Centric-Remember-Me

Well, this is just the latest failure of a game with a "strong female protagonist" to actually perform on the market, but other studios go on ahead and follow this model targeting the "feminist" market of video games, see where that leads them.
http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2012/03/20/hydrophobia-developer-shuts-down/
http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,691770/Velvet-Assassin-makers-are-broke-Replay-Studios-are-closing-down/News/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/129370-Ubisoft-Considers-Beyond-Good-Evil-a-Mistake
http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/29/ninja-theory-heavenly-sword-sales-still-not-enough-to-break-even/
http://mynintendonews.com/2013/04/17/platinum-games-talk-about-sales-struggles-and-low-bayonetta-sales/
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21573

The two new creative ventures, Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, have both failed miserably. This is in spite of lengthy and extensive marketing for each game, including a series of graphic novel-style backstory trailers for Dead Space released over several months.

What was the definition of insanity again?

Yeah... cuz picking a female lead was the sole reason why the game did poorly, obviously.

Mirrors Edge and Dead Space did like most "New IPs" difference being that those were good games, Remember me on the other hand... isn't.

 

[Baralak]

A real shame. I personally loved Remember Me. Really interesting concept, with a decent story, a good combat system (or at least I enjoyed it) and a fantastic soundtrack.

I definitely recommend that those with PS Plus pick it up and give it a shot, at least.

Yeah, I was a big fan of it, too. I preordered it and enjoyed every minute with it.

 

[CloudAtlas]

What a pity. I just finished the game yesterday.

Sure, the gameplay had its flaws, and the story never quite captivated me, but it had its moments, and I thought there was lots of potential. The core idea/theme was unique and interesting, the memory remix scenes were really memorable, I enjoyed the combat well enough, art design and music was great, the setting was a welcome change, and Nilin became one of my favourite protagonists in an instant: Capable, complex, conflicted, determined, and very attractive. What a shame I'll probably never meet her again.

Guess the publishers were right after all huh? (...) Well, this is just the latest failure of a game with a "strong female protagonist" to actually perform on the market, but other studios go on ahead and follow this model targeting the "feminist" market of video games, see where that leads them.

Yea... the commercial failure of Remember me couldn't have possibly anything to do with mediocre quality, mixed reviews, or lack of marketing... right.

What was the definition of insanity again?

Maybe you should tell that EA, Square Enix, or Nintendo. I heard they all have games with female protagonists in development, and last I checked, they all didn't mind earning money.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Update: Dontnod CEO Oskar Guilbert claims that the company is not bankrupt, but going through a French court procedure called "judicial reorganization."

"We started new projects and those new projects need some investment and we decided to resize the company in order to match these new needs," he told GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-31-dontnod-ceo-there-is-no-bankruptcy] That's why we needed judicial reorganization."

And there I was sad for an hour. I'll be waiting for you, Nilin! And if your next adventure is a bit longer, and a bit better told, I might even pay full price for it.

 

[Metalrocks]

i enjoyed the game. surely far from perfect but good enough for me to play it 3 times. and thats on pc. i wish them the best. lets hope they succeed.

 

[JediMB]

I hope they scale down a bit for their next title. While Remember Me wasn't the best game [footnote]I gave it a strong 7/10 back when it was released[/footnote], I'd definitely be interested in a new game with a narrower scope, more polish, and that same creative passion that shone through Remember Me's mediocre game mechanics and voice acting.

 

[JediMB]

Not even 20% of Mass Effect players even played female Shepherd by the way and cutting that feature would have likely been largely inconsequential to the series sales numbers.

Well, not even 20% of the players who were logged onto their EA accounts in Mass Effect 2.

It's also worth noting that 50% of that same player pool never finished the game. Granted, that has no bearing on the sales of ME2, but players who actually finish a game are more likely to pick up the next one. Now this is speculation on my part, but I would wager that an overwhelming majority of these likely disloyal customers exclusively played as the male Shepard, and also didn't pick up the DLC or the sequel.

And, at the end of the day, 20% is still a pretty huge part of the player base. No player base is homogeneous, but rather made up of a multitude of minorities. Cut a feature set that appeals to one, and then another, and eventually you'll basically have no customers left.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Not even 20% of Mass Effect players even played female Shepherd by the way and cutting that feature would have likely been largely inconsequential to the series sales numbers.

(...)

Also, where did you pull that last statistic? [/quote]

That one actually could be about right, if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was the % of playthroughs with FemShep, or something like that.

However, that could have also been due to the fact that, FemShep rarely featured in commercials, marketing campaigns etc, especially for the first two games (maybe not at all here), and apparently many potential buyes, female buyers in particular, weren't even aware that you could play as female protagonist too for that reason. At least that's what I've read.

Every single AAA game with a "strong female protagonist" other than Tomb Raider or Metroid sold abysmal numbers and either drove the studios working on them bankrupt or left them reeling from the bad sales for years.

Publishers interested in commercial success of their games or interested in developing a franchise would have to be brain dead to try to build it on the basis of a "strong womyn character" and not try to rely on sex appeal.

We're talking about a very small sample here. It is always dangerous to draw conclusions from small samples.

Anyway, you seem oddly gleeful about the (perceived) failure of games with female protagonists. Are you happy about those games failing? Would you prefer it if there were no games with female protagonists? Don't you think it reflects rather poorly on gamers if they have so little empathy so that they can't identify enough with a female character in order to experience a story from her point of view? Is all of that a situation that deserves to be celebrated?

 

[Evonisia]

I'm so glad I read this post update. I loved Remember Me (still my 2013 Game of the Year, though Saints Row IV is really fun atm) and I'd hate to see Dontnod go out of business.

Edit: And it would be a damn shame to waste Nilin like that, I loved her as a character.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Man, don't you know about them billions of hardcore female gamers? Publishers like totally don't know what they do eith their oh-so-irrational "creepy cull of female protagonists".

There are probably more than you think. Read this, for example: http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2013/12/marketers-fear-female-geek-2/

And I really wonder about their ultimately mediocte reviews, after all it's the same people who pushed the idea how the so-much shitter pseudo-game Gone Home with as little as 2 minutes of total gameplay is 10/10 GOTY, or even actually the best game ever. (Any true and honest review should be 2/10, possibly more if the price was lower.)

Please go on. Statements like these do wonders for your credibility.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Man, don't you know about them billions of hardcore female gamers? Publishers like totally don't know what they do eith their oh-so-irrational "creepy cull of female protagonists".

There are probably more than you think. Read this, for example: http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2013/12/marketers-fear-female-geek-2/

Marketers know their job.

Sure. That's why companies like Apple are constantly failing, right? Because they didn't listen to all those folks who told them that there's just no market for about every iProduc, right? And that's why Minecraft was developed and published by EA, because their marketing experts recognized the immense demand for a game like this, right?

And you know what? Marketeers like to make predictions based on data. On past sales and so on. But if your data is poor, your predictions will be equally poor. And that's precisely the problem here: There simply haven't been that many games, let alone really excellent ones, let alone in mainstream genres, let alone with huge marketing budgets, that feature female protagonists. The only one I can come up with from the top of my head that qualifies is Tomb Raider, and that game too is making a profit now.

And I really wonder about their ultimately mediocte reviews, after all it's the same people who pushed the idea how the so-much shitter pseudo-game Gone Home with as little as 2 minutes of total gameplay is 10/10 GOTY, or even actually the best game ever. (Any true and honest review should be 2/10, possibly more if the price was lower.)

Please go on. Statements like these do wonders for your credibility.

You're right, it was under 1 minute, actually: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9qlm8olmn0

It seems the irony was lost on you.

 

[CloudAtlas]

Or, maybe, at least didn't blatantly alienate gamers with things like having show the player character kiss a man. Something the devs chose to proudly proclaim to the world in their interviews.

A woman kissing a man? How dare they to "blatantly alienate gamers" like that! Man, that's as bad as, say, having a gay character making a move on you (a la Dragon Age 2). Outrageous!

Anyway Nilin didn't actually kiss anyone in the game, not that I remember anyway.