Nerial, the studio behind Reigns and Card Shark, is entering "hibernation mode" after posting combined trading losses of nearly £1.8 million across 2024 and 2025, according to UK Companies House filings flagged by journalist Chris Kerr.

The studio, founded 13 years ago by CEO Tamara Alliot and creative director François Alliot, will end development with nine employees still on the books. Parent company Devolver Digital, which acquired Nerial in 2021, retains rights to the studio's existing catalogue of 11 published titles.

What pushed the studio to close?

François Alliot told Kotaku that the post-acquisition structure eroded the indie autonomy that defined Nerial's early work. "Having been bought by Devolver, you become an internal studio, so that means each of our games needs to be a Devolver game," he said. "Devolver needs to publish all Nerial games, which it did match very well for Reigns, it did match very well for Card Shark, for example."

He continued: "Every time we have to think about what the other wants. And there's a bit of a second-guessing. I recognise this situation, where you lose a bit of the concentrated energy that you had as a pure indie. And I want to get back to that in some way."

The financial pressure is documented in company filings. A Companies House report surfaced by Kerr showed Nerial lost over £800,000 in 2025 and nearly £1 million in 2024. The studio had become "dependent" on financial support from its parent. Devolver cut Nerial's headcount by 40% last year to address weak recent releases.

What changes for the games?

Devolver holds the catalogue. The Alliots and the publisher remain "very good friends," according to François. Existing titles stay in distribution across Mac, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, Android, and the now-defunct Stadia storefront.

No future projects will ship under the Nerial banner unless a successor studio structure emerges. Reigns and Card Shark stand as the studio's two flagship releases.

What are the founders planning?

Both Alliots intend to keep making games, but at smaller scale without publisher alignment overhead. François plans to "step back and rethink what I want to do with my indie career" before launching something new.

He hopes to keep his nine-person team on as contractors, but cannot fund them as salaried staff today. The founders will "take a break and reflect on everything that's happened, before coming back with a new perspective," they said in a joint statement.

François framed the closure as a response to wider market pressure rather than any single failure. "It's become a bit difficult to push forward, especially with the current context, with post-COVID, there's a bit of this crash in the video game industry that everyone knows," he told Kotaku. "AI sucking out all the air from the room. So we are rebuilding, trying to rebuild strong roots."

The studio's final social statement thanked collaborators "inside the studio, at Devolver, and through ad hoc collaborations." It recommended the departing team to "any potential studios that will be lucky enough to have them." Watch for Devolver's next moves on the Reigns and Card Shark IPs, and whether the Alliots register a smaller entity by mid-2026.