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THQ Nordic acquires Piranha Bytes

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Dec 17, 2013
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Well, for better or worse (to be decided by the future), THQ Nordic is now a major player on the RPG scene. Between Piranha Bytes and Warhorse, they hold the keys to much of interesting development for the next decade.
 

Rahdulan

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Back to Jowood yeeha. Gothic 3's launch was a marvelous experience.

Except now they're owned by them so no easy way out anymore. But hey, THQ Nordic seems like a different kind of beast and is dead set on becoming a bigger force in the industry alongside Focus Home Interactive.
 

SniperHF

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Wait why does codex suddenly see this news as negative? Wasn't the news about THQ Nordic acquiring Expeditions IP received well?

It's not so much I think it's negative in terms of ELEX 2 or any other near-ish term projects from PB. It could easily result in the same or even better games than we would have gotten otherwise.

But is Piranah Bytes going to be a studio of any note as a separate entity(even if owned by THQ N) in 10 years?
History of acquisitions easily points to no.

Or put another way, if PB sold to their publisher in 2006 around Gothic 3's release would we have ever seen them rebound with Risen 1 and then again later with ELEX? I think probably not. They'd have taken a crack at Gothic 4, if flopped like Gothic 3 reception wise the owners would have put them on some sort of Fergus style perceived Slamdunk and their noteworthiness as a studio would be gone.

Sure THQ Nordic in its current state is a lot better than JoWood but the end result of these things is almost always the same eventually. Studios that sell go away.
 

Dexter

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And even if it didn't - has there ever been a remake of any western RPG ever? I don't mean the "add some bugs, upscale the resolution and Bob's your uncle" kind like Beamdog shits out, I mean a proper remake like Shadow of Colossus, FF7 or Resident Evil. I don't remember any.


:troll:
 

Sloul

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They sold gothic Ip to thq sme years ago.
They mentioned that they couldn't make a reboot/hd version of gothic 1 and 2 because their studio was too little.
 

Ismaul

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Hmm, so if I understand correctly, THQ Nordic first purchased the Gothic IP (by buying JoWood in 2011), then the Risen IP (by buying Deep Silver in 2016), and partnered with Piranha Bytes for ELEX (2015) and published it (2017), all before acquiring PB?

Seems planned, like they were courting PB. Given they had all their IPs, it's an offer PB couldn't easily refuse. PB would have to work with them anyways.
 

jaydee2k

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Hmm, so if I understand correctly, THQ Nordic first purchased the Gothic IP (by buying JoWood in 2011), then the Risen IP (by buying Deep Silver in 2016), and partnered with Piranha Bytes for ELEX (2015) and published it (2017), all before acquiring PB?

Seems planned, like they were courting PB. Given they had all their IPs, it's an offer PB couldn't easily refuse. PB would have to work with them anyways.

NONONONONONO!

They got the licence back in 2011! PB owned the Gothic licence since then. They just didn't want to make another sequel.

Gothicz.net: Mike, last question. If you had a chance to win the rights for Gothic back, would you consider it? Is there a possibility, that you ever develop another Gothic?

Mike Hoge: We get the rights to Gothic back when we have finished Risen 2. Why? Because we did only sell them to our ex-publisher for a certain amount of time ;)

http://www.gothicz.net/serie-gothic/mike-hoge-talks-about-gothic/
 
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unfairlight

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THQ Nordic first purchased the Gothic IP (by buying JoWood in 2011),
IIRC, JoWood never owned the Gothic IP, they just had licensing rights to it. PB has had the exclusive right to the IP since 2011 or something like that, after their licensing agreement with JoWood ended after they released Forsaken Gods and that mobile game.
To my knowledge, they also have Risen's IP, but I'm less sure on that. It's not like there's gonna be a Risen 4 anyway.
 
Last edited:
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That makes no economic sense, to remake a 13 year old game that was poorly received with even the fans of the series. Gothic 3 was a mistake, it is unsalvageable.

WTF, when's the last time you played it? I did like 3 years ago and I had the time of my life. With the community stuff it's one of the best RPGs I've ever played.

As for a remake, first - G3 doesn't need any, it still looks serviceable even for graphix whores. And even if it didn't - has there ever been a remake of any western RPG ever? I don't mean the "add some bugs, upscale the resolution and Bob's your uncle" kind like Beamdog shits out, I mean a proper remake like Shadow of Colossus, FF7 or Resident Evil. I don't remember any. Even non-RPG remakes are very rare. Seems it's mostly console Jap games that get those. So no, it's most likely not gonna happen.
ever heard of a guy named jeff vogel?
 

Sloul

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They sold gothic Ip to thq sme years ago.
They mentioned that they couldn't make a reboot/hd version of gothic 1 and 2 because their studio was too little.
It's what happened. They got back their rights to the Gothic franchise, and as soon as they got them, they sold it to THQ Nordic. Not my fault if it wasn't a major headline in the press or if codexers were absent on Elex forums (it's where they mentioned it).
If you find the date at which PB got back gothic, count a couple days and that's when they made that deal with THQ.

edit/ps: i am not saying that the deal was unlimited, every contract is different. We just had a comment like ''oh heii, we sold it to THQ''.
 
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unfairlight

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WTF, when's the last time you played it?
Last summer. About 5 hours or something. It was fucking atrocious, the world was empty and completely retarded, the quests were inane shit and despite me being apologetic for the combat of every single PB game, I can't be for Gothic 3.
 

:Flash:

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THQ Nordic is an Austrian video game rights holder collecting mid budget European developers.
THQ Nordic is actually Swedish. It wouldn't make much sense for an Austrian company to be called Nordic Games, as they originally were, wouldn't it?
It seems they're doing most of their business out of their Vienna office nowadays, but it's still owned by Swedes.
 

Ismaul

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THQ Nordic first purchased the Gothic IP (by buying JoWood in 2011),
IIRC, JoWood never owned the Gothic IP, they just had licensing rights to it. PB has had the exclusive right to the IP since 2011 or something like that, after their licensing agreement with JoWood ended after they released Forsaken Gods and that mobile game.
Right. What THQ Nordic must have gotten with the purchase of JoWood are the rights to the existing Gothic games, but not the actual IP. They have it now anyways.

Still, they did gather everything PB made under one roof and developed a working relationship with PB before actually buying them. Might not be a negative, we'll see.
 

Dexter

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WTF, when's the last time you played it?
Last summer. About 5 hours or something. It was fucking atrocious, the world was empty and completely retarded, the quests were inane shit and despite me being apologetic for the combat of every single PB game, I can't be for Gothic 3.
I love Gothic 1+2, I liked Risen a lot, I love ELEX, but I never could get beyond the first few hours of Gothic 3, it's just eww...

It's like they intentionally gave up everything that made Gothic 1+2 so good and generally makes their games stand out in world building and tried making their own "Oblivion".
 

cvv

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I love Gothic 1+2, I liked Risen a lot, I love ELEX, but I never could get beyond the first few hours of Gothic 3, it's just eww...

It's like they intentionally gave up everything that made Gothic 1+2 so good and generally makes their games stand out in world building and tried making their own "Oblivion".

The world in G3 is great which you'd discover if you saw more than a few hours from the game. But sure, it has a different feel than G1/G2. It's a completely new engine and it's open world. So yeah, it's different.

I've been arguing over G3 with people for years now. Most critics either never played the game or played it only on launch when it was an utter mess and never touched it again or simply don't know what they're talking about.

The game still have problems even with all the patches and addons, like the engine is still wonky, the itemization is unfinished and the first zone, Myrtana, isn't as interesting as the other ones but overall it's easily on part with the prequels in my book.
 

Metro

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G3's world is 75% empty -- Varant and Nordmar are clearly unfinished. Myrtana isn't that great, either. The new engine was garbage, especially for melee combat. What content there is plays like a solo MMO. Random loot in chests also blew. It's down there with Risen 2 well below G1, G2, and Risen.
 

Deleted Member 16721

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Yeah Gothic 3 is dope, I enjoyed it a lot and it has some good ideas. As for THQ Nordic, they seem to be the good guys so this is a good move for PB. Securing funding and making sure their games get extra love and polish is a good thing. Can't wait for ELEX 2!
 

Paul_cz

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Jan 26, 2014
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Gothic 3 has amazing music and Myrtana was actually fun to explore. But it suffers a lot from generic quest design, copypaste and unfinished Varant+Nordmar. I remember when I first played I became a mage and learned homing fireball and was totally immortal and indestructible and so I uninstalled it.
Second time around playing melee I finished it (with "canon" ending) and enjoyed it but yeah it is very flawed and nowhere near G2
 

Infinitron

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Everybody seems to be theorizing about Gothic but I really don't think they're going to make anything except ELEX 2 right now.
 
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LESS T_T

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I guess "Gothic trilogy remastered" makes some sense in THQ Nordic's strategy, in that they can release them on consoles.
 

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