Life is Strange creators Don’t Nod will run out of funding later this year unless new investment is secured, auditors have warned.
Founded in 2008, the French studio is known for creating the Life is Strange franchise, which is now handled by other studios, and most recently it put out adventure game Lost Records, and sci-fi narrative Aphelion.
Don’t Nod sold a minority stake of the company to Tencent in 2020, which granted the conglomerate a seat on its board.
It appears that the studio’s recent titles haven’t had the commercial success it needed, since in a note from its auditors published this month, it’s claimed that the studio will run out of money in November, unless it finds additional funding.
The note states that Tencent does not intend to inject more money into the business in the short term, nor fund the games it currently has in development.
“The Company had, as of April 7, 2026, cash on hand of approximately €8.8 million,” the letter reads (via machine translation). “Your Chairman informed us that he had been seeking additional financing for several months and that all avenues were being explored to improve the Company’s cash position, whether through a capital increase or external financing for your game currently under development.
“The Company’s management has informed us that, according to its cash flow projections, without additional financing and taking into account, among other things, revenue assumptions related to the release of a new game in late April 2026 and cost savings that are not yet fully effective, the Company is expected to run out of cash during the month of November 2026.
“Your Chairman also informed us that, following his inquiries, your principal shareholder, TENCENT, did not wish to subscribe to a capital increase in the short term nor to contribute to the financing of games currently in development through co-production agreements.
“Finally, your Chairman informed us that discussions had been underway with certain major players in the video game industry for several months but that these had not led to any structured financing offer. Given the situation, we considered that the facts mentioned above were such as to jeopardize the going concern of your Company.”
The auditor note goes on to state that solutions being explored include finding a new funding partner, releasing Don’t Nod’s next game sooner than planned, or taking on work for hire projects.
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