The two founders of the studio, Sebastien Vidal and Nicolas Cannasse, had already sold a “very small” part of the capital to the Chinese giant Tencent in 2020, but keep the controls of a company which is distinguished in particular by its production rate and its mastery. of different genres, from real-time strategy to RPG to roguelite. In just ten years, Shiro Games released Evoland (2013), Evoland 2 (2015), Northgard (2018), Darksburg (2020), Wartales (2021) and Dune: Spice Wars (2022) in partnership with Funcom.
Of these titles, only 2020’s roguelite hack & slash fell short of expectations, while Northgard was instead a major launchpad with over 3 million copies sold and sales increasing year on year. . As for Wartales and Dune: Spice Wars, they illustrate the rise in range of the studio’s budgets as well as its affection for early access.
Former boss of Focus Entertainment, now a consultant for the investment bank Alantra (which advised Cathay Capital in the financing of Shiro Games), Cédric Lagarrigue believes that the Bordeaux studio is “one of the most promising independent video game companies in Europe“by his rare ability to”multiplying successes in very different genres and universes“, he explains quoted by Les Echos.
With around sixty employees now, Shiro Games will use the money raised to further expand its team and work on the development of two new unannounced games expected in 2024. A program to which is added its new publisher activity with the label Shiro Unlimited, whose first title (Decarnation) caused a sensation with ianoo during gamescom last August. A title that will be released in 2023, just like the underwater construction and management game Abyssals.