French union accuses Quantic Dream of ‘catastrophic project management’ over Spellcasters Chronicles shut down

Quantic Dream announced the shutdown of Spellcasters Chronicles after it was available for just three months, and a French labour union has some choice words for the publisher.

As spotted by Game Developer, French labour union STJV (Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo) issued a statement on May 21, 2026, which accuses Quantic Dream management of “Catastrophic project management,” even after worker representatives “sounded the alarm about the project’s colossal risk level numerous times.”

This follows the announcement of Spellcasters Chronicles’ shutdown, which Quantic Dream announced via social media on May 20, 2026. “Today, Quantic Dream is announcing the discontinuation of the development of Spellcasters Chronicles.” It continues, “in today’s particularly challenging market environment, the game has not reached the audience needed to ensure its long-term sustainability. We have therefore made the difficult decision to refocus our efforts on our other projects.”

The announcement goes on to clarify that Spellcasters Chronicles servers will have been online for just shy of four months in total before being closed. “Spellcasters Chronicles will remain accessible online until June 19, 2026, when the servers will be shut down. All amounts spent during Early Access will be eligible for a full refund upon request. Further details will be shared in the coming days through the game’s official channels and Discord.” The game launched on February 28, 2026. Quantic Dream took the opportunity to remind us that this does not affect the development of Star Wars Eclipse.

STJV’s statement does not pull its punches, saying, “Officially, the ‘unstable and difficult market’ is being blamed for this decision – but it was hardly difficult to predict. This project, started 8 years ago and led by Guillaume de Fondaumière, David Cage and Grégorie Diaconu, was supposed to be a ‘reasonably-sized’ project and was planned for a much earlier release.

“Over all these years, nobody questioned the business model or how the game was to become profitable. Catastrophic project management resulted in iteration after iteration, exhausting the team and leading production straight to disaster. Quantic Dream leadership points to external factors; we blame their decisions, be they financial, creative, or organisational. The resulting project was ungodly expensive and aimed at a high-risk market, without matching current player demands.”

STJV claims that one quarter of Quantic Dream’s workforce is at risk thanks to a restructuring plan resulting from Spellcasters Chronicles’ cancellation, totalling 95 potentially lost jobs. “Failure was never an option, never thought about, never planned for: incompetence led us here today. Workers pay for management’s misguided ways.”

Spellcasters Chronicles launched to 888 concurrent players according to SteamDB, though that number hovered in the double-digits post-launch. The game is no longer available to download on Steam, and sits with Mixed overall reviews.