The struggle continues for many mid sized publishers and developers as today DON'T NOD gave their first half 2024 outlook report and things wernt as hoped for the developer with its 2 most recent projects failing to live up to expectations.
Unfortunately it was Banishers: Ghosts Of New Eden which took the brunt of the bad outlook. Banishers launched in February of 2024 and despite a strong critical reception "performed well below expectations" according to the studio. We do not have an idea of what those expectations were but it doesn't seem like a case of the studio over projecting.
On a personal level this really sucks to hear. Banishers is so far my game of the year for 2024. It had a fantastic narrative with well crafted characters and a stunning world with good game play. I truly hoped it would do well. Our reviewer seemed to agree. Banishers was also our community game of the month for February and the community also seemed to love it.
On the whole for the first half of 2024 DON'T NOD posted an 11% decline in operating revenues to €14.6 million. The company says this revenue will not cover their expenses resulting in a loss of around €1 million. As a result of this the studio is shifting its focus to "Intellectual Property in production offering the highest potential return on investment in the short (and medium) term". While this is understandable the studio has long been known for creative games so hopefully they aren't fully going away from this to pursue more mainstream games.
Looking ahead the studio is hopeful Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, which launches in 2025 episodically, can do better for them. Lost Records is similar to their popular Life Is Strange series which did well when they were at the helm so hopefully it is the boost they need.
They also have 2 projects in the works scheduled for 2027 that are now being "refocused" to help reach a wider audience and bolster its sales potential as well as help with finding publishing partnerships. Finally 2 projects which were in their early design phase have been postponed in order to prioritize resources for the other projects to maximize the chance of success.
