Dontnod CEO Says Life is Strange Is 'Not Our Strategy' For Now

Though Dontnod's seen success with games like Tell Me Why and Vampyr, it's still primarily associated with Life Is Strange. In addition to pioneering the series with the original Life Is Strange (which was widely praised by critics and sold over three million copies) Dontnod is also responsible for Life Is Strange 2 and The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit. But according to CEO Oskar Guilbert, Dontnod is now ready to move on. "Never say never," Guilbert said. "But for the moment it's not our strategy, yeah. We want to create our own IPs. That's what we want to do." Despite its association with Life Is Strange, Dontnod doesn't own the intellectual property. Square Enix does. And Square Enix recently announced that Life is Strange: True Colors will be developed by Deck Nine, which also worked on Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. That on its own doesn't prevent Dontnod from ever returning to Life Is Strange, but, at least for now, more Life Is Strange isn't in the studio's plans. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/03/life-is-strange-2-the-complete-season-trailer"] Head of publishing Xavier Spinat added immediately after, "But we are looking at what's happening, of course. Because our fans are looking at it, and so we are looking at it." Guilbert elaborated further on the importance of Dontnod owning its own games, tying it into other topics we addressed during the interview like the studio's long-term stability. He also talked about Dontnod’s determination to remain independent and not have its portfolio influenced by outside editorial decisions. "We think that this is something really important for the company, for the ownership of the teams, and for the future of Dontnod," he said. "This is our value for the next [few] years. So we decided to now develop IP [that is] fully or at least partially owned [by Dontnod]. So this is really our strategy. "We continue to work with Focus Home Interactive. We work with them on Vampyr. We continue to work with them on Project 8 [Dontnod's internal name for one of its upcoming games]. So yes, we are seen as the Life is Strange studio, but I hope that in the future we'll be seen like-- we cannot reveal the titles for our next game, but let's say Project 9, Project 10, Project 11. Or Dontnod Project 1." Earlier this year, Dontnod announced it was working on a new franchise in partnership with Tencent after Tencent bought a minority stake in the company. In total, the studio has seven projects in the works — six internally, and one it is publishing for independent developer PortaPlay. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.