Jenny and Björn Pankratz talk about the studio closure of Piranha Bytes. And what it means for Gothic, Risen and co.
The industry is in a bad way at the moment
, attests Jenny Pankratz in a new video in which the two ex-chief designers Jenny and Björn Pankratz talk about the closure of the traditional German studio Piranha Bytes (Gothic, Elex, Risen). They were contractually bound to the old companies THQ Nordic and Embracer until the end of June 2024, which is why there was radio silence for months. Until now
Just a few weeks ago, we reported exclusively that Jenny and Björn had founded a new company called Pithead Studio to develop indie games entirely to their own taste in the future. At the same time, there were frightening pictures from the former offices of Piranha Bytes. And although not all the details have been clarified yet, at least one thing is certain: Jenny, Björn and many other team members had to turn their backs on Piranha Bytes
The new video is about the reasons
The most important insights from the new video
As already mentioned at the beginning: The current economic situation in the industry plays a very decisive role in the end of the studio
In the end, Piranha Bytes was also hit
: The gaming industry has been recording thousands of job cuts for months. People are being fired in a gigantic round of layoffs because the industry cannot maintain its immense growth during the pandemic. This also applies in particular to Embracer, to which Piranha Bytes has belonged since 2019.We didn’t leave voluntarily
: Björn Pankratz also talks about the heavy emotional burden that the end of the company after more than 20 years entails. The team had thought long and hard about whether and how they could continue – founding a new company seemed to be the best way forward.
We just keep going
: Pithead Studio receives a large part of the money that the ex-bosses earned with the sale of Piranha Bytes to Embracer.What about Gothic?
: The trademark rights for all Piranha Bytes games remain with Embracer, i.e. Gothic, Risen and Elex. Piranha Bytes has nothing to do with theGothic remake anyway, as it is being developed by Alkimia Interactive in Barcelona, but we are still very excited to see what the developers there come up with.
Almost in a subordinate clause, the two also talk about Pithead Studio’s future games. These should differ considerably from what we have seen in Elex and the like, be much more compact, but also more immersive. Of course, a newly founded indie studio doesn’t have the same budget as Elex 2, which also had access to German funding.
So it remains extremely exciting to see how things will continue with the ex-studio heads of Piranha Bytes. Even if a Gothic 5 is never realized for rights reasons, but most likely also due to a lack of interest from the Pankratzens, Pithead Studio wants to remain true to its own strengths and Ruhrpott charm. We’ll keep you up to date as soon as something happens.
