A few days ago, some rumors surfaced suggesting the closure of Piranha Bytes. Piranha Bytes is the studio behind the Gothic, ELEX and Risen series. And a couple of hours ago, the studio issued an official statement about those rumors.
While Piranha Bytes claimed that the studio is not closing, yet, it did admit that things are not going well. The studio claimed that it’s doing everything in its power to keep the lights on.
From the sounds of it, Piranha Bytes will be pitching a new game to a new publisher. If that goes well, the studio will be able to work on it and, hopefully, secure its future.
However, it all depends on whether publishers will be interested in funding this new game. Let’s not forget that Piranha Bytes is not a triple-A studio. And while they are a PC darling, their latest releases were not commercial hits. So yeah, things are not looking that great right now for the German studio.
For those unaware, Embracer Group acquired Piranha Bytes back in 2019. However, Embracer Group has been facing lately major financial issues. The group has already closed Campfire Cabal, Free Radical, and Volition.
For those wondering, this will have no impact on the development of Gothic Remake. Gothic Remake is being developed by Alkimia Interactive and it will be published by THQ Nordic. In short, it has nothing to do with Piranha Bytes or Embracer Group.
Stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Kinda expected, they didn’t have a hit for a long time.
>they didn’t have a hit for a long time
elex 1 had 23k peak online, if it’s not hit for you then i don’t know what is the hit for small studio.
sales my dude sales.
Had the best sales for their games
no way everyone says the opposite that it flopped. I have heard no one talking about it.
They have different budgets compared to the Gothic 1/2 era.
And what about Elex 2?
killed by elden ring, 9k online, but still fine enough to exist
I hear ya, but I don’t think “fine enough” in our current times is sufficient. There are bills to pay and they keep rising.
Systems either change or die. PB has been living on borrowed time.
elex 2 was killed by elden ring which is sad because unlike elden ring it had a story and factions you can join and good missions and a more varied interesting world, but all good faith was gone after all those years without a hit, it always amazed me how piranha bytes was able to survive when so many studios closed down, the founder of the studio left because he wanted to make elex 3 and the rest of the studio wanted to make another gothic, so i dont care at all what happens to them, credit where its due, they do open worlds much better than modern open worlds, they actually make ever inch of the game feel lived in and not copy pasted activities in a large open scale world like ubisoft.
Yeah, while I’m not an RPG fanatic, I hope ELEX at least ends with a third game, since ELEX is their most interesting franchise they’ve made to date to continue the studio’s traditions of making a trilogy then moving on a new IP like how at first there was a Gothic trilogy, then moved on to make a Risen trilogy, then they’ve moved on to ELEX with 2 games so far. Hope ELEX becomes a trilogy.
not really, gothic 1 was the best, did not need a sequel gothic 2 felt off in terms of story and world, gothic 3 was an unfinished mess that feels like an early access game with most features missing than an actual finished game, the publisher was at fault, risen was a miniature gothic 1 but not as good, never finished it, risen 2 was like they tried to make it different and less like their previous games and while that was true every design decision in that game was stupid, the pirate setting the mini games the tiny islands that felt more unbalanced with more back tracking to fight tougher enemies than their previous worlds, laughable combat and upgrade system, i got seriously bored and gave up at that game the jungle level design was a mess too, never played risen 2 apparently you play as different character and it has by far the most fluid combat it feels like a AAA game but its a tiny game and elex had one good thing about it, the worldmap was huge with lots of variety and stuff to explore and it had guns and jetpacks, but they were done bad, and the story was a mixed mess like the factions as if devs didnt want to make this game but they mixed everything together to satisfy everyone, the combat was the worst part of it, too complex but it doesnt matter since its about upgrading your character rather dodging attacks and managing stamina since the hit detection is trash and enemies dont use stamina and guns dont feel like guns. You had to spend like 20 levels and 20 hours running around doing non combat quests to get more powerful so you can actually play the game, too tiresome. Elex 2 was much better in terms of combat but at that point all the good will was gone and no one cared they played elden ring instead and that was that. I dont think elex 3 is in development.
ELEX was indeed a good idea, but horrendously executed. Tried to play it several times, but it’s unbearable. Poor performance on such an ugly title is more than enough to be forgotten.
I wouldn’t mind if the Gothic series got the RTX Remix treatment…
On that note:
John, why are you still asleep?
RTX Remix 0.4 just dropped:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c49bf476a80c5778c7da72ce75587929f173eceafe9a53879df1c756d6b8c24.png
I mean, duh? We’ve already said that the Open Beta phase for RTX Remix will begin today. Let’s now what modders can cook 😛
I can feel the German coursing through this message. That’s some poor translation.
Creative minds, huh? Don’t make me laugh. Elex looks and plays like a game that’s decades behind.
Yeah, but it’s still better than an over rated dog vomit called Witcher3.
Lay the drugs off.
🐑🐑🐑
keep chewing on grass.
Most retärded comparison I’ve ever seen! It’s ok to dislike the game, lad. But being totally ignorant on the fact, it’s a new low, even for you.
Not my fault you like literal dog sh*t disguised as a video game.
Ofc it’s your fault! Don’t run away from your responsabilities!
I don’t remember impregnating your mother, but sure I’m sorry for leaving you at that age.
Gotta have nuts that work to do that…..
Things were looking great for them after Elex1. I wonder if the increase in their size had anything to do with it.
This is super sad. Larian Studios is the only decent RPG developer left at this point.
Piranha Bytes, even though they have redeeming underlying qualities and old school touch in their games, are the masters of AA eurojank. I just can’t believe how they stayed alive for so long.
I think a very interesting idea would be for Larian to acquire them, have a strong hand in directing their games to clear up the jank and solidify their concepts, and get/save their IPs and next games and use them as a backup studio.
fck no, why would i want piranha bytes to become woke, id rather they die instead.
Think for a minute, think, don’t just talk sh*t like a moron!
Because Larian is the only:
– old school RPG specialized developer,
– that is also massively successful criticallly,
– also financially
– and btw is euopean based, so they’ll share a good bunch of the creative idiosincrasy.
Them having gone a bit woke is the least of both of their and our problems when PB are about to go extinct.
We wouldn’t lose much at this point.
German deindustrialization, thanks to NATO, hearing it’s ugly head?
Chill down Ivan. You got rekt.
You have a fertile mind i see, lmao.
What prompted this unhinged response? Those are just facts, Germany lost their cheap gas so they can help your beloved cause and closed their Nuclear plants for some dumb official reason. What says you that you can’t even aknowledge the sacrifices these countries make? You just have lies at your disposal?
Closing the nuclear plants was just r*tarded, let’s be real here.
Probably, but these countries live under occupation, if Germany rebels, they could face a Chernobyl situation, hell, they could face a Chernobyl situation all the same, because these people are psychotic…
It’s all their fault, it was them who applauded Merkel while she was Schaffen nothing with the muslims.
Germans are dumb as all hell. They really thought Arabs and Africans would work for their pensions.
Germany found another and cheaper gas long ago. Only now it’s from various sources, not from known terrorist that used gas for blackmail.
And you think i will trust an unhinged lunatic like you, that only posts here to call people terrorist for playing a video game and also supports the mass murder of women and children? Go lie somewhere else, scum!
I don’t know if anyone was still doing anything at Piranha the last decade. The last Piranha game is from 8 years ago, and was a flop.
Embracer can’t perform miracles, there were probably few people even working at Piranha. Without Embracer they would have probably closed shop sooner.
Still super excited about the Gothic remake btw. If you don’t want to play weeaboo RPG from Japan, European RPG are the best.
Gothic series, Risen series, Drakensang, Divine Divinity, Age of Wonders, Disco Elysium, Greedfall, The Witcher etc. All available on GoG for peanuts.
People complain about game prices, but you can play old games that go for peanuts.
New World Interactive hasn’t shut down. They just had layoffs and are currently working on their next title.
Sucks to hear about this but that’s normally the case when a company isn’t able to land themselves an overnight success in quite some time. Especially when they’re owned by another entity who wouldn’t think twice about shutting it down if they feel like they’re underperforming.
If only there were more prominent individuals like Satoru Iwata who once sacrificed 50% of his annual wage to prevent all his employees from being laid off when they were dealing with financial problems.
Yeah my bad, fixed.
for me their best game is still gothic 1
More trouble in the gaming industry. I was just reading about Riot Games laying off 530 employees. I haven’t heard anything about League of Legends being in decline and iirc last year Riot had a revenue of 1.5 billion USD but the CEO had this to say:
“Our costs have grown to the point where they’re unsustainable, and
we’ve left ourselves with no room for experimentation or failure—which
is vital to a creative company like ours,” wrote Jadeja. “All of this
puts the core of our business at risk.”
It was great seeing how much work you put into it. The picture is nice, and your writing style is stylish, but you seem to be worrying that you should be presenting the next article. I’ll almost certainly be back to read more of your work if you take care of this hike.
“is being developed by Alkimia Interactive and it will be published by THQ Nordic. In short, it has nothing to do with Piranha Bytes or Embracer Group.”
Except for the fact that both Alkimia and THQ are literally owned by Embracer…
So I guess it’s time for them to embrace death.
Embracer Group is literally gaming’s industry CANCER. Worst, If not same as Tencent.
EG destroying every studio/games they acquire. Last game killed was Insurgency: Sandstorm. As soon as EG bought the rights, game filled with shitloads of mtx. Servers becomes garbage with massive lags and constant disconnects, since they rent cheaper hosting services. No wonder PB will meet same fate. Just make a google search to see how many game studios suddenly went “bankrupt”, as soon as they’re acquired by EG.
How exactly is Tencent as bad as Embracer? One company buys shares, the other bankrupt devs.
Embracer Group is trivial compared to the wrecking ball EA and the carnage that they have left behind in the gaming industry.
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EH…i could give this studio and it’s janky games a pass in the
past. But these days, it’s absolutely absurd and ridiculous. You have
indie games releasing way better/higher quality products these days then this studio.
Maybe put some effort in to future games if you want to stay in business.
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