Cyanide SA (also known as Cyanide Studio) is a French video game developer based in the

Nanterre Nanterre (, ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, bordering t ...

suburb of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. The company was founded in 2000 by Patrick Pligersdorffer, formerly of

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', '' ...

. Since 2007, Cyanide operates a second studio, Amusement Cyanide, in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Canada, and employs a total of 110 staff members as of 2018. Cyanide was acquired by French publisher Bigben Interactive (now

Nacon Nacon (formerly Bigben Interactive) is a French video game company based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020 Bigben Group was consolidated to form Na ...

) in May 2018. Big Bad Wolf, founded in 2015 at Bordeaux, and Rogue Factor, founded in 2013 at Montréal, are branches of Cyanide.

History

Before founding Cyanide, Patrick Pligersdorffer began working in the

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstrea ...

with

, where he assisted the opening of an internal development studio in Japan. After leaving Ubi Soft, Pligersdorffer established Cyanide in

in 2000. In November 2007, Cyanide announced that they had set up a new studio in

, Canada. At the time, the new studio, known as Amusement Cyanide, was tasked with creating a new proprietary 3D animation engine for a game that was in development at Cyanide's headquarters. On 14 May 2018, French publisher Bigben Interactive (now

) announced that they had wholly acquired Cyanide for a total sum of . By this time, Cyanide employed 110 people in its two studios.

Focus Home Interactive Focus Entertainment (formerly Focus Home Interactive) is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris, France. Founded in 1996, Focus has published and distributed original titles such as ''Sherlock Holmes'', ''TrackMania'', ''Runa ...

, Cyanide's primary publisher, previously also attempted to take over the studio, but was rejected by the developer's supervisory board, which eventually led to the resignation of Focus Home Interactive's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

, Cédric Lagarrigue.

Developed titles

Games by Cyanide

Games by Amusement Cyanide

Games by Big Bad Wolf

Games by Rogue Factor

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Île-de-France Nanterre Video game companies established in 2000 French companies established in 2000 Video game companies of France Video game development companies 2018 mergers and acquisitions Nacon