Little Nightmares Series Could Be Over as Studio Focuses on Creating New IP

Tarsier Studios “will, from now on, focus on creating new IPs”, potentially spelling the end of its Little Nightmares series.Tarsier parent company Embracer Group revealed its Q3 earnings today, including a section on the Swedish studio. “After the quarter Tarsier studios game Little Nightmares 2 was published [by Bandai Namco] and was well received by its audience,” reads the earnings report. “Tarsier studios will, from now on, focus on creating new IPs.”

In a webcast to accompany the earnings, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors went into more detail. “I’m super-thrilled, and I spoke to the CEO of Tarsier the other day, and congratulated him [on] the critical success of Little Nightmares 2. It’s an IP they created, but it’s owned by Bandai Namco and published by Bandai Namco, so it doesn’t really have any significant commercial impact for us, even though if it does really well it could have some royalty revenues over time.

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“But I’m super excited about them achieving such a game again, because the first game was very well received, and this game looks as well received. Now, having that game created, they will move over to create new IPs, and I’m super excited, and that was the main reason we made this acquisition a bit over a year ago.”

Wingefors’ comments don’t outwardly say that Tarsier will no longer make Little Nightmares games, but his mention of the series’ ownership by Bandai Namco (a competing publisher), and his pointing to new IPs being the reason for the acquisition seem to imply it. It is, of course, possible that Bandai Namco could now hand the Little Nightmares IP to a new studio, given its success.

We’ve contacted Tarsier, Embracer, and Bandai Namco for comment.

Tarsier was acquired by Embracer Group (the prolific acquisition-focused holding company that now owns the likes of Gearbox, 4A Games, Volition, and many more games companies) in December 2019. Little Nightmares 2 had been announced earlier that year, implying that devlopment had already begun for Bandai Namco at the time of the acquisition.

We awarded Little Nightmares 2 a 7/10 review, saying “There’s no doubting developer Tarsier Studios’ artistry and ability, but I hope for its next project it leaves these Little Nightmares behind and dares to dream bigger.” It seems that may now be the case.

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News, and he really wants you to play Tarsier’s somewhat forgotten VR game, Statik. It’s fantastic. Follow him on Twitter.