Piranha Bytes, the German developer of the Gothic, Risen, and Elex RPGs, has reportedly been closed by guardian firm Embracer Group. The closure comes lower than six months after Piranha Bytes mentioned it was “in a troublesome scenario” however was nonetheless looking for a option to transfer forward with its subsequent recreation with the intention to preserve the studio open.
The closure was first reported by Polish gaming web site CD Motion, which quoted a former worker as saying the studio had been shuttered on the finish of June after Embracer was unable to discover a purchaser.
Shortly after that report got here to mild, former inventive director Bjorn Pankratz, alongside together with his spouse and fellow Piranha Bytes veteran Jennifer, introduced the launch of a brand new indie outfit referred to as Pithead Studio.
“We needed to maintain doing what we love,” Pankratz mentioned within the studio announcement video. “This appeared like one of the simplest ways to do it.”
The video makes no point out of Piranha Bytes, however a message posted on the Pithead Studio Discord factors to an sad ending.
With Pithead Studio now we have based a brand new indie studio.Sooner or later we’ll develop immersive and incredible indie video games.Curious? Then check out our newest video.https://t.co/qTTwtLqtnmPlease unfold the phrase!#pithead #pitheadstudio #indiedev pic.twitter.com/oCzXAKKwtJJuly 8, 2024
“As you certain observed, the gaming trade was not doing effectively final 12 months,” it states. “This was additionally the case for the Embracer Group, to which THQ Nordic and Piranha Bytes belong. Plenty of studios needed to shut, 1000’s of individuals within the gaming trade worldwide misplaced their jobs. Sadly, Piranha Bytes was additionally affected by this.”
A separate message notes that the Gothic, Risen, and Elex video games stay the property of THQ Nordic, the Embracer model below which Piranha Bytes operated, and Pithead Studio has no information of, or affect over, what’s going to occur to them sooner or later.
“All we all know is that Alkimia Interactive from Spain is engaged on an Elex remake,” Pithead mentioned. “We’re not included within the making of the remake in any type, and subsequently haven’t any affect on it. Subsequently, we’re as excited as you’re and can observe it with curiosity.”
Piranha Bytes wasn’t a “massive” studio nevertheless it did have deep roots in PC gaming. Based in 1997, its first recreation was the 2001 fantasy RPG Gothic, and whereas it wasn’t an enormous hit, it established Piranha Bytes as a maker of formidable Eurojank—the kind of video games that are inclined to have small however very devoted followings. That status was cemented over time by two extra Gothic RPGs, the Risen RPG trilogy, and two Elex video games: The primary Elex, for example, “is the sort of bizarre, flawed RPG we don’t all the time get anymore,” we wrote in our 2017 assessment, the sort of factor that “will enchantment to die-hard RPG followers and few others.”
Embracer-owned THQ Nordic acquired Piranha Bytes in 2019, when Embracer’s ‘purchase all the pieces that is not nailed down’ spree was getting as much as full pace, nevertheless it fell sufferer to the collapse of a $2 billion funding deal that resulted in a whole bunch of layoffs via 2023 and ’24, and the closure of different studios together with Volition, Free Radical, and Items Interactive.
A message posted on the Piranha Bytes web site in January saying the studio was looking for a accomplice for its new venture has been eliminated. By way of the Wayback Machine, that message was current as not too long ago as June 2—all that is still now could be the studio emblem and get in touch with info.
THQ Nordic declined to touch upon the reported closure.
