Union Criticizes Greedfall 2 Publisher for Studio Failures: ‘Years of Mismanagement and Lack of Direction’
GreedFall: The Dying World recently exited Early Access on Steam, but the studio behind it is already facing financial turmoil. This situation reflects a broader struggle among several AA teams owned by Nacon, with a French union attributing the crisis to top management’s short-sighted approach, prioritizing quick profits over sustainable strategies for the studios and their projects.
This week, Nacon’s subsidiary studios—Spiders, Kylotonn, and Cyanide—have all filed for insolvency due to their inability to meet financial obligations. This development follows Nacon’s own recent efforts to manage its debts in French court. Spiders launched GreedFall: The Dying World to mixed reviews on Steam, while Cyanide released Styx: Blades of Greed this month. Kylotonn, known for the WRC racing series, has been notably quiet lately.
The French video game union Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo is holding Nacon and its executives accountable for the plight of these AA studios. In a statement, they criticized the management’s lack of respect for game production and their incompetence, claiming it has undermined studios that were previously viable before their acquisition, jeopardizing promising projects.
The union’s statement elaborates:
Years of poor management and a lack of strategic direction at both the group and studio levels have hindered modernization and development. Despite draining studio resources—tens of millions of euros that should have ensured stability and job security—Nacon is now facing a deficit.
Temporary fixes like halting all hiring and raises for over a year, or pushing unproven solutions like ‘AI’ onto studios without clear purpose, will not resolve financial issues. The decline in working conditions over recent years, coupled with the establishment of new studios seemingly aimed at undermining existing ones, has only exacerbated the situation.
STJV is calling for the removal of the executive team and the establishment of improved working conditions, updated tools, and development processes, along with a strategy to combat turnover that has led to a loss of talent. The union is also demanding a clear creative vision to navigate the evolving video game market of 2026, where there is little tolerance for games that fail to stand out or lack a defined niche.
Developers at Spiders have been vocal about their dissatisfaction with management, previously threatening to strike over claims that the Early Access release of GreedFall 2 was rushed, with shifting budgets and timelines. The sequel has received less than 10 percent of the positive Steam reviews that its predecessor achieved.
