Nerial, the studio behind Reigns and Card Shark, is ending its development operation after nearly 13 years and 11 published games. Founders François and Tamara Alliot announced that the studio is entering what they call “hibernation mode” after reaching a mutual decision with publisher and parent company Devolver Digital.
The shutdown follows significant trading losses reported for the past two years. Nerial’s accounts show a loss of nearly £1 million in 2024, while reporting on its most recent filing indicates a loss of more than £800,000 in 2025. Devolver had also disclosed in 2025 that Nerial underwent a 40% reduction in headcount to address issues surrounding recent releases and reshape the team for future projects. Those financial pressures form part of the explanation, but they are not the entire story. François Alliot told Kotaku that the decision was complicated and that he wanted to step back and rethink his career as an independent developer. He also said that Nerial’s more recent games, including Card Shark and The Crush House, were less lucrative than the original Reigns.
Nerial currently consists of nine people, including François and Tamara Alliot. The seven other employees are being let go as part of the shutdown. Alliot said he hopes to work with some of them as contractors in the future, although he is not currently in a position to retain them as salaried employees. The closure also ends Nerial’s period as an internal Devolver studio. Devolver acquired 100% of Nerial in April 2021, and Alliot said the relationship remained amicable. However, he explained that being an internal studio meant every Nerial project also had to fit within Devolver’s publishing plans, creating an element of “second guessing” that he felt could dilute some of the concentrated creative energy of being a pure independent developer.
Devolver will retain the rights to Nerial’s existing catalog, including the Reigns and Card Shark series. Nerial’s most recent release was Reigns: The Witcher, developed with CD Projekt Red and released on February 25, 2026. Alliot and Tamara intend to continue making games, but plan to take a break before deciding what comes next. François also pointed to the post-COVID downturn and the rapid spread of AI as part of the increasingly difficult environment for independent developers, particularly as new game concepts can be copied and iterated on very quickly. Those observations are his assessment of the wider industry, rather than an official explanation for Nerial’s closure.
Nerial’s development operation may be ending, but its founders are not leaving game development behind. For now, the studio’s existing games remain with Devolver while François and Tamara Alliot prepare to return to independent development on their own terms.
