Overview
- The studio announced on Thursday that Nerial is entering hibernation after 13 years and 11 published games, ending active development at the nine-person outfit.
- Seven of the studio’s nine staff have been laid off as part of the closure and the founders said they hope to hire some former employees as contractors in future projects.
- Devolver Digital will keep the rights to Nerial’s existing catalog, while François Alliot will retain the studio’s prototypes to develop new ideas outside the studio structure.
- Alliot said the decision reflects a personal need to step back combined with industry pressures such as a post-COVID downturn, tighter investment and faster copying of ideas driven by AI.
- The founders said they will continue making games together on a smaller scale, a move that signals a return to their indie roots and could change how they finance and release future projects.