Nacon history: rapid studio expansion, gaming hardware and a 2026 restructuring

Nacon was designed as a two-engine games business: one side makes and publishes titles, while the other sells the controllers, headsets and racing equipment used to play them. That combination grew quickly through acquisitions after a 2020 stock-market listing—but in 2026, debt rather than a new game became the company’s defining challenge.

Nacon is young, but its roots are not

French consumer-electronics group Bigben Interactive created Nacon in October 2019 to bring its video-game publishing, development studios and gaming accessories into one company. The corporate description calls Nacon a 2019 business built on decades of Bigben experience, which is more accurate than treating the Nacon name as the start of every studio, series and peripheral it inherited.

Bigben had spent years distributing games and accessories and had already begun buying development capacity. Assets transferred into Nacon included publishers, studios and intellectual property such as the Test Drive series. Nacon therefore began life with an operating catalogue and supply chain rather than as a conventional start-up.

The 2020 flotation funded an acquisition strategy

Nacon listed on Euronext Paris in March 2020, while Bigben remained the controlling shareholder. The separation gave investors a way to value the gaming activities apart from Bigben’s other consumer-electronics businesses and supplied capital for expansion.

The company then assembled a network of specialist studios. The portfolio grew to include Cyanide, Kylotonn, Eko Software, Spiders and Rogue Factor, followed by Neopica and Italian racing developer RaceWard. In 2021 it bought Australian sports-game developer Big Ant Studios, Lyon-based Passtech Games, Montreal’s Crea-ture Studios and French indie publisher and developer Ishtar Games.

Midgar Studio and Germany’s Daedalic Entertainment followed in 2022. Daedalic cost up to €53 million and added both publishing operations and development expertise. By 2026, Nacon described a group of 16 development studios—large enough to support a broad release schedule, but also expensive to keep productive when projects slip or sell below expectations.

Sports and simulation became the catalogue’s spine

Nacon deliberately concentrated on the AA segment: games with recognisable production values and specialist audiences, but generally smaller budgets than the largest global blockbusters. Its recurring categories include racing, sports, simulation, role-playing and action-adventure.

Big Ant supplies cricket, tennis and rugby expertise; Cyanide works on cycling and fantasy properties; Kylotonn developed WRC and Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown; Spiders created GreedFall; and Teyon developed RoboCop: Rogue City for Nacon. Annual Tour de France and Pro Cycling Manager releases illustrate the appeal of a repeatable niche, while titles such as Steelrising, Session: Skate Sim and Hell is Us broaden the catalogue.

This portfolio approach can spread creative risk, but it does not eliminate it. Each acquired studio adds salaries and development commitments before its next release earns revenue. A publisher must sequence launches carefully, support games after release and avoid asking too many projects to compete for the same marketing budget.

That model differs from the blockbuster scale described in our Activision studio overview. Nacon’s opportunity lies in serving genres that larger publishers may overlook; its disadvantage is that one delayed or unsuccessful AA release can still matter materially to a smaller group.

The accessories division provides a second route to players

Nacon also designs and distributes controllers, headsets, microphones and other gaming hardware. Its Revolution controllers target premium PlayStation and Xbox users, while Pro Compact models compete at a more accessible price. Mobile controllers and accessories for Nintendo hardware extend the range beyond the two largest home-console ecosystems.

In 2020, Nacon acquired the RIG headset brand and related gaming-audio assets from Plantronics, now Poly. RIG gave the company an established identity in lightweight headsets instead of requiring it to build a new audio brand from zero. Nacon later moved further into racing hardware with its Revosim steering-wheel, pedal and accessory ecosystem.

Hardware can balance the timing of game launches, but it introduces inventory, manufacturing, freight and retail-distribution risk. Licences such as “Designed for Xbox” also matter: compatibility and platform approval are part of the product, not an optional marketing label.

Daedalic exposed the cost of a failed release

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launched in May 2023 after delays and was poorly received. Nacon subsequently confirmed a restructuring at Daedalic, including the end of its internal game-development activity, while the German company continued its publishing work.

The episode showed why owning more studios does not automatically create safer earnings. Licensed games combine development risk with deadlines, approvals and audience expectations attached to somebody else’s intellectual property. When a major release disappoints, a publisher may absorb development write-downs, lost future sales and damage to a studio’s plans at the same time.

The 2026 crisis began with debt and controlling-shareholder pressure

On 25 February 2026, Nacon said its available assets could not meet liabilities falling due and filed for insolvency. The immediate disruption was linked to Bigben’s inability to make a partial repayment on bonds exchangeable into Nacon shares after its banking group declined the planned refinancing.

The Lille Métropole Commercial Court opened judicial reorganisation proceedings for Nacon on 2 March. This is not the same as an immediate liquidation. Pre-existing liabilities are frozen during an observation period while the company continues operating and attempts to negotiate a continuation plan with creditors.

The stress spread through the studio network. Spiders, Kylotonn, Cyanide and motion-capture company Nacon Tech sought their own judicial-reorganisation proceedings in March; Midgar Studio followed in May. The court extended observation periods while work on a recovery plan continued.

Nacon was still negotiating its future in September 2026

An August 2026 update said Bigben had reached an agreement in principle with its main financial creditors and that a significant portion of Nacon’s creditors intended to support a compatible reorganisation plan. Nacon warned that the proposed financing would significantly dilute existing shareholders.

At that point, the Nacon plan was still being developed and still required court approval. The company had also postponed publication of its audited annual financial report because the restructuring required additional audit work. Those facts should be stated plainly: an agreement in principle is not a completed rescue, and unaudited sales figures are not a substitute for final accounts.

Operations nevertheless continued during the proceedings. Nacon held its rescheduled Connect presentation in May 2026, maintained its online game and accessory business and worked through announced releases. Continuity during an observation period does not guarantee that every studio, project or shareholder interest will survive the eventual plan.

Key milestones

• 2019: Bigben creates Nacon to combine its video-game and gaming-accessory activities.
• 2020: Nacon lists on Euronext Paris, buys the RIG headset brand and expands its studio portfolio.
• 2021: Big Ant, Passtech, Crea-ture and Ishtar join the group.
• 2022: Nacon acquires Midgar Studio and Daedalic Entertainment.
• 2023: RoboCop: Rogue City succeeds commercially, while Daedalic stops internal development after The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.
• 2024–2025: Nacon expands premium controllers, sim-racing hardware and its games pipeline.
• February–March 2026: Nacon files for insolvency and enters court-supervised judicial reorganisation.
• March–May 2026: Several development subsidiaries enter related proceedings.
• August 2026: Creditor negotiations advance, but the reorganisation plan remains conditional and warns of significant shareholder dilution.

The next chapter depends on the court-approved plan

Nacon’s original logic remains easy to see: studios generate games and intellectual property, publishing brings them to market, and accessories create a second relationship with the same players. The weakness is equally clear. Acquisitions and long development cycles were supported by a financial structure that became vulnerable when refinancing failed.

The most important next evidence is not another product trailer. It is a final reorganisation plan, audited accounts, the treatment of creditors and shareholders, and confirmation of which studios and projects remain funded. Until the court process is resolved, Nacon is an operating games company under judicial protection—not a completed turnaround and not a business that has already disappeared.