This morning, French publisher NACON filed for insolvency, following a major issue with its majority shareholder, Bigben Interactive. On November 24, 2025, Bigben announced it had secured a refinancing agreement with a banking pool of leading French banks for €43 million, repayable over 6 years. This would have partially refinanced prior outstanding bonds, leaving a non-refinanced residual balance of approximately €16.1 million to be repaid separately on the maturity date.
However, on February 13, 2026, just four business days before the maturity date, the banking pool informed Bigben that it was refusing to honor the drawdown notice sent in connection with the refinancing, claiming it could invoke a breach by Bigben for an obligation to provide information stipulated in the credit contract. Bigben strongly disputed this legal analysis and reserved all its rights. The refusal was described as both unexpected and late, leaving Bigben (and, therefore, Nacon) with almost no time to find an alternative.
Unable to proceed with the partial repayment of the aforementioned €43 million, last week Bigben announced the temporary suspension of trading in its shares on Euronext Paris and its bonds on Euronext Access Paris. NACON, as a subsidiary, had its own shares suspended simultaneously.
Today, the two companies filed different court procedures reflecting their different situations. Bigben filed for an amicable conciliation procedure, stressing it would have no impact on operations, employees, or customers. Bigben also noted that its principal asset is its majority stake in NACON, in which it holds 56.72% of the share capital and 65.79% of the voting rights.
NACON's situation appears to be more severe, though. Unable to meet its own liabilities as a direct consequence of the parent company's crisis, it filed for full judicial reorganisation proceedings. This freezes existing liabilities for an observation period of up to 18 months while the company attempts to develop a continuation plan. Essentially, NACON has formally acknowledged that it cannot meet its current liabilities. The procedure gives it court protection while it attempts to restructure, but the outcome is, at this point, genuinely uncertain. If no viable continuation plan emerges within the observation period, liquidation becomes a very real possibility.
It's all a bit surreal for fans of NACON's games, even more so because the publisher has just announced this Monday that a new NACON Connect Showcase will go live on March 4, 2026, providing updated news and footage on upcoming titles like Edge of Memories, The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu, and Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss.
As a reminder, NACON currently owns the following 16 AA development studios that altogether employ more than a thousand developers:
- Nacon Studio Milan
- Big Ant Studios
- Daedalic Entertainment
- Cyanide
- Midgar Studio
- RaceWard Studio
- Neopica
- Ishtar Games
- Crea-ture Studios
- Eko Software
- Kylotonn
- Spiders
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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