Today, DONTNOD Entertainment, an independent French game developer, announced they are joining the publishing world collaborating with the Copenhagen-based indie game developer PortaPlay. The untitled game will be the first starting off their publishing career and are promising to partner with other third party developers in the future. Xavier Spinat the head of publishing for DONTNOD said, “As a publisher, we want to offer players experiences that are both accessible to the wider audience, while setting the bar high regarding themes and quality of design.”
DONTNOD Entertainment was founded in 2008, since then, it has developed several games including Life Is Strange, Vampyr, Tell Me Why, and more. The company’s hopes are to create narrative-driven games that have original characters and impactful themes. With their expansion into supporting other games’ futures, they are helping other companies that share similar gaming values. To ensure their self-publishing success, they are creating two departments for marketing and publishing that will work together to promote their own self-published games as well as games with other developers.
The developer is also working on expanding their games in Asia. Earlier this year, Tencent a Chinese multinational technology company bought share in DONTNOD Entertainment investing €30 million. The investment will contribute to their plans to design upcoming games and self-publish their future games in China which will broaden their audience greatly.
Last year, DONTNOD Entertainment released two games–Twin Mirror and Tell Me Why. The first game follows the story of a young man who returns to his hometown after the death of a friend. While he mourns, he must face past regrets and bad memories. The other game explores the journey of two twins Tyler and Alison Ronan who reunite. Together they must work together to recall their troubled past and plan for their futures.
The next game in the Life is Strange series, Life is Strange: True Colors was revealed earlier this year during Square Enix Presents Spring 2021. The game features a new character named Alex Chen with the new supernatural power of empathy. The game is set to release on September 10, 2021. Developer Deck Nine is making this game. The developer also worked on Life is Strange: Before the Storm. During the presentation, they also revealed the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection which will include Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Both games will have updated visuals and animations.