andy.chalk@pcgamer.com (Andy Chalk)
2025-06-26 17:53:00
www.pcgamer.com
Don’t Nod has reportedly laid off an undisclosed number of developers from its Montreal office. The layoffs have not been formally announced but were revealed in posts made by multiple impacted employees on LinkedIn.
“Today, I was part of the layoff wave at Don’t Nod Montréal,” principal cinematic artist Mary Pouliot wrote. “Although I was anticipating this dread fatality that is now a habit in the industry, it came to me as a real shock. I did not anticipate that this morning when waking up and going to the studio. But there it is. No cinematic artist anymore at DNM.”
“The omnipresent waves of layoffs in our industry finally got to us after the release of Bloom and Rage,” technical artist Laurent Dufresne wrote in a separate post. “Sadly while we managed what feels like a miracle given circumstances, it didn’t seem like enough to keep our relatively small team whole and a non-insignificant chunk of it was lost today.”
Lead QA and senior tester Sandra Cormier and senior game and level designer Mathieu Tremblay were also part of the cuts.
“These past 3 years, I’ve learned a lot as a Lead QA but also as a part of a wonderful QA team,” Cormier wrote. “I will never stop saying how much I am proud of my colleagues.” Tremblay echoed that sentiment, saying he is “incredibly proud of what the team at Don’t Nod Montreal accomplished with Lost Records: Bloom and Rage,” and that “shipping the game with this level of quality was nothing short of a miracle in the circumstances.”
The reported layoffs come less than a year after Don’t Nod said it was “temporarily pausing” work on two in-development games because its then-recent releases Jusant and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden “performed well below expectations” despite enjoying “an excellent critical reception.” Jusant, which Don’t Nod Montreal contributed to, is the standout, a “sublime” fantasy rock climbing game that scored 89% in our 2003 review, but Banishers earned plaudits as well as a ghost story “stretched a little thin, but still well worth exploring.”
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was also well received, although reviewer Autumn Wright noted that the second, concluding chapter was weaker than the first (which, to be clear, was very good): Shorter, buggier, and rushed, but still delivering a “strong narrative conclusion [that] is worth seeing.”
While Don’t Nod itself hasn’t commented on the layoffs, the French videogame workers union Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo said nine employees at Don’t Nod Montreal have been let go, and another seven have been given a “temporary suspension,” in order to “reduce costs across the group.” The union has previously criticized the “catastrophic decisions” of management at Don’t Nod, and in October 2024 denounced a plan to lay off employees at the company’s Paris studio.
STJV repeated those criticisms in messages posted to Bluesky, and called for further unionization of videogame workers in North America.
Don’t Nod Montréal: we have been informed of the lay-offs of 9 colleagues and the “temporary suspension” of 7 others in order to “reduce costs across the group”. We support the colleagues affected. The STJV strongly condemns Oskar Guilbert’s catastrophic management of the company.
— @stjv.fr (@stjv.fr.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T21:51:26.785Z
“In France, the union fight succeeded in drastically limiting the number of layoffs and in obtaining acceptable departure conditions,” the union wrote. “We encourage and support our comrades and colleagues who are organising the industry across the Atlantic! Direct action gets the goods.”
I’ve reached out to Don’t Nod for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
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