Nacon Collapses: Blood Bowl Saved, Spiders Shut Down

Éditeur : Nacon (insolvent)  |  Acquiring Publisher: Slitherine Software  |  Développeur : Cyanide Studio  |  Franchise: Blood Bowl  |  Announcement Date: July 1, 2026

Slitherine Software has acquired the publishing rights, licence, and back catalogue for the Blood Bowl franchise from insolvent French publisher Nacon. Cyanide Studio, the series’ longtime developer, remains in place and will continue working on future Blood Bowl titles under Slitherine’s new ownership. The deal arrives as Nacon’s broader insolvency has already claimed Greedfall developer Spiders, which shut down entirely earlier this year.

What Happened to Nacon

Nacon filed for insolvency, forcing the company to sell off intellectual property and studio assets to pay down its debts. GamesIndustry.biz confirmed that Cyanide filed for insolvency in March alongside three other Nacon-owned studios, including Spiders. Nacon was unable to find a buyer for Spiders specifically, and the studio was subsequently liquidated, ending development on the Greedfall series entirely.

Cyanide avoided that fate. Instead of shutting down, the studio’s flagship franchise found a new publishing home through Slitherine, while Cyanide itself continues operating under Nacon’s restructuring. This distinction matters significantly: Blood Bowl survives with its development team intact, while Spiders and its projects did not.

Why Slitherine Is a Strong Fit

Slitherine specializes in strategy games and has extensive experience publishing titles set in the Warhammer universe, including Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector and Warhammer 40,000: Gladius. Blood Bowl is based on Warhammer Fantasy rather than the Warhammer 40,000 setting most modern Games Workshop licenses use, a distinction familiar to players of Fatshark’s Vermintide series.

Slitherine’s director of publishing, Marco Minoli, praised Cyanide’s track record and said the two companies plan to keep working closely together to support the game’s community going forward. Cyanide CEO Patrick Pligersdorffer called the partnership “a perfect match,” citing Slitherine’s expertise publishing high-quality strategy games.

What This Means for Blood Bowl 3 and Beyond

Cyanide has previously committed to updating Blood Bowl 3’s rules to align more closely with the tabletop version of the game. That commitment now moves forward under Slitherine’s publishing umbrella, and the rebrand is likely to include a name change to Warhammer: Blood Bowl to strengthen the franchise’s connection to the tabletop license.

Blood Bowl 3 launched in February 2023 to a rocky reception, criticized heavily for bugs and missing features at launch, including private league functionality that had existed in Blood Bowl 2. Cyanide addressed most of those complaints roughly a year after release, and the game has continued receiving regular updates since. However, its concurrent player count remains modest, even as its core community stays engaged.

What Remains Uncertain

Nacon’s insolvency process is still ongoing, and it remains unclear whether additional studios or franchises beyond Spiders and Blood Bowl will change hands or shut down before the restructuring concludes. Consequently, this deal should be read as one confirmed outcome within a larger, still-unfolding situation rather than the final chapter of Nacon’s financial troubles.

Résultat final

This is one of the rare outcomes from a publisher insolvency where the franchise, the developer, and the community all come out intact. Slitherine’s specific expertise in Warhammer-licensed strategy games makes it a genuinely sensible new home for Blood Bowl, not just a defensive acquisition. Spiders was not so fortunate, and that contrast is a sober reminder of how unevenly these corporate collapses distribute their damage.