Nacon is in big trouble following majority shareholder Bigben Interactive failing to make the partial repayment of its bond loan to its bondholders. According to Nacon, this was due to “an unexpected and late refusal by its banking pool”.

Nacon acts as both a hardware manafacturer (mainly controllers) and as a publisher publishing titles made by their own internal developers, as well as third-parties. Their most recent title, for example, was Styx: Blades of Greed which I’m actually in the middle of reviewing. Other recent titles include Hell is Us and Robocop: Unfinished Business.

Filing for insolvency does not mean the company is definately shutting down, but indicates that it cannot currently pay its debts and is at risk of having to close its doors unless they can right the ship.

Nacon says the situation “required the rapid implementation of a financial restructuring with its creditors in order to ensure the continuity of its operations”.

Currently, the company is running as normal and even still intends on holding its Nacon Connect showcase next month.

Nacon suffered a blow last year via parent company Bigben when Nintendo won a €7 million damages judgment against Nacon over a 15-year-old patent infringement case involving third-party Wii Remote controllers copying the device’s motion-sensing design.

Some people have pointed to this as being a cause of Nacon’s currently issues, but quite simply, €7M is small potatoes for the company. While it certainly didn’t help, nothing indicates that it played a major role in the current situation.

No, the issues stem from Bigben Interactive, the majority shareholder in Nacon. The company holds 56.7% of Nacon and 65.8% of the voting rights. Bigben triggered this disaster by defaulting on a €43 million bond repayment due February 19, 2026. Banks refused a €43M credit facility drawdown citing an alleged breach of a contractual information disclosure obligation. Bigben is disputing this claim and called the move “unexpected”.

Between this and some weak game sales, such as the disaster that was Gollum, Bigen is in a tenous position, and as Bigben’s main source of income, Nacon is the first in line to feel the blowback.

Here’s the timeline of everything so far, as best as I can tell.

Timeline of crisis

• Feb 13: Banks reject €43M credit facility drawdown, citing alleged info breach (disputed by Bigben).
• Feb 17–19: Bigben announces inability to repay €43M partial redemption on 2021 €87M bonds (exchangeable into Nacon shares).
• Feb 20: Trading suspended for Bigben/Nacon shares and bonds; liquidity crunch hits Nacon operations.videogameschronicle+1
• Feb 25: Bigben requests “amicable conciliation” for creditor talks; Nacon files for judicial reorganisation.

If Nacon has to shut its door or sell off studios it would be a huge blow to the single-A and double-A space, so let’s hope Bigben can get its act together and fix its money problems.