The Parisian studio Spiders is expected to cease operations in the coming days, as reported by French outlet Origami. The creators of Greedfall and Steelrising, which are owned by Nacon, have seemingly been unable to overcome their parent company’s financial woes. These financial issues led Nacon to be placed under judicial administration in March.
The same administrator overseeing Nacon’s proceedings was also assigned to Spiders, KT Racing, Cyanide, and Nacon’s motion capture division, Nacon Tech. These entities collectively declared insolvency and voluntarily sought intervention. To address its financial predicament, Nacon attempted to sell off Nacon Tech and Spiders, but unfortunately, no buyer was found before mid-April. With no buyer in sight, the future of Spiders appears sealed.
Problems at Spiders have been brewing for some time. In a recent episode of Silence on joue!, a video game podcast from the newspaper Libération, a representative for Spiders from the Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) discussed the studio’s situation. This discussion occurred shortly after the release of GreedFall: The Dying World, just days before Nacon’s judicial intervention. The representative expressed a desire for Spiders’ intervention to lead to “better decisions” and for the team to be “organized in such a way that we have the right to create good games and sell them,” rights they “currently do not possess.”
The STJV has been vocal for years about the studio’s challenges. The union has reported issues including poor and opaque management, which reportedly worsened after Nacon acquired Spiders in 2019. This acquisition “added an extra layer of opacity to the company,” the union stated in an open letter published in mid-2024. This situation was exacerbated by management’s refusal to provide “reliable information” regarding the relationship between Spiders and Nacon. The union’s letter noted that “in the face of the slightest expression of concern about Spiders’ economic viability or creative freedom,” workers were told that “everything is covered by the contracts” between the studio and its owner, “without even giving employees the opportunity to verify them.”
The internal tension and management problems at Spiders, which have led to public and internal delays and shifts in direction for their recent projects, likely did not contribute to making the studio an attractive acquisition. This is particularly notable given that Spiders was once considered a key player in the resurgence of European AA video games, a movement where companies like Focus and Nacon played significant roles. Both Focus and Nacon have shaped Spiders’ history. Since its founding in 2008, Spiders worked closely with Focus on titles like Mars: War Logs and Bound by Flame, along with co-developments and collaborations with other studios such as Frogwares and Cyanide. Nacon ultimately purchased Spiders in 2019, a year after acquiring Cyanide itself. The rest, as they say, is history.
