The story
Founded by Nicolas Cannasse and Sébastien Bénard on Aug 6, 2001.1
History
Motion Twin was founded in 2001 as a private limited company in France. In 2004, it became a worker cooperative with equal salary and decision-making power between its members. The name Motion Twin refers to an animation technique, called motion tween, and the choice of a red star in the logo is because of its revolutionary significance.
In the studio's early years, it made web-based games for its social gaming platform Twinoid. Motion Twin initially gained notice through the release of games such as Hammerfest, My Brute, Mush, Die2Nite, and AlphaBounce. By 2009, Motion Twin had 10 million registered users and 15 games.
As the market for web games dried up, it attempted to move into mobile games, with little success. By this point, Motion Twin had briefly considered disbanding.
Left with one "last chance" for the studio, Motion Twin developed Dead Cells. It was made as the developers' "passion project" and "something hardcore, ultra-niche, with pixel art and ridiculous difficulty" that they thought would be a potential risk for gaining player interest. Motion Twin initially attempted to make a follow-up to tower defense game Die2Nite, but most of the game mechanics were ultimately stripped out to focus on action-based combat.
Dead Cells was released to Steam Early Access in May 2017 and macOS and Linux on June 26, 2018. It was released on Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch August 7. An iOS version was released on August 28, 2019, and an Android version was released on June 3, 2020.
About a year from its early access release, Dead Cells sold over 730,000 units, and exceeded 850,000 units just prior to its full release. By May 2019, within ten months of its full release, Dead Cells had accumulated sales of two million units. In March 2021, Dead Cells had sold 5 million copies. It reached 10 million copies sold in 2023.
In 2019, Motion Twin assisted in the establishment of Evil Empire to take over development and support of Dead Cells, allowing other Motion Twin developers to start on their next project. Evil Empire is run by Steve Filby, Motion Twin's former head of marketing, and is not a cooperative, since the company wanted to scale beyond ten employees. Motion Twin continues to maintain creative control over Evil Empire's work on Dead Cells.
The game's first paid expansion, Dead Cells: The Bad Seed, was released on February 11, 2020. A second paid DLC expansion, Dead Cells: Fatal Falls, was released on January 26, 2021. The game's third paid expansion titled Dead Cells: The Queen and the Sea was released on January 7, 2022. A fourth paid expansion, Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania, was released on March 6, 2023. There have also been over 30 free updates since the game's initial release.
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On December 7, 2023, Motion Twin announced its next game, Windblown, debuting a trailer at The Game Awards 2023. The game is characterized as a fast-paced isometric action game.
On February 9, 2024, Motion Twin announced it would stop creating new content for Dead Cells, and Evil Empire would be moving on to new projects. In April 2024, it was revealed that Evil Empire's next game is The Rogue Prince of Persia. It released into Early Access in May.
Studios founded by former employees
Nicolas Cannasse co-founded Shiro Games in 2012.
Sébastien Benard founded Deepnight Games in 2020. (see Nuclear Blaze)
Benjamin Soulé co-founded PUNKCAKE Délicieux in 2021. (see Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate)
From Wikipedia’s article on Motion Twin, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4