Piranha Bytes has shut down, Bjorn Pankratz founds new studio

[BruceVC]

In any case, there is no way another publisher will not jump to save them. Even in the retarded state they are.

What makes PB so desirable? They have lived off the rotting corpse of Gothic 1&2 for more than two decades, incapable of releasing a successful game.

Wish they would just die already, so we dont have to put up with the ridiculous Gothic fan community coping over every shit release PB does.

Geez dude, we all upset but no need to be so racist....I am also sad but let's be civil

 

[Konjad]

The early Gothic games are obviously where it's at, but Risen 2 is way better than most action-RPGs of that era. The humour and smatterings of sexism and racism alone has it head and shoulders above a ton of others...



Big shame 3 abandoned that direction.

Play Vendetta - The Curse of Raven's Cry. You'll love it.

 

[Rhobar121]

The early Gothic games are obviously where it's at, but Risen 2 is way better than most action-RPGs of that era. The humour and smatterings of sexism and racism alone has it head and shoulders above a ton of others...



Big shame 3 abandoned that direction.

Play Vendetta - The Curse of Raven's Cry. You'll love it.

Isn't this the game that was mostly known for being shitty?

 

[Konjad]

The early Gothic games are obviously where it's at, but Risen 2 is way better than most action-RPGs of that era. The humour and smatterings of sexism and racism alone has it head and shoulders above a ton of others...



Big shame 3 abandoned that direction.

Play Vendetta - The Curse of Raven's Cry. You'll love it.

Isn't this the game that was mostly known for being shitty?

It got infamous because originally (called Raven's Cry at the time) it was completely bugged to the point you could barely progress. It has low Steam ratings after a really botched release version, but now all bugs seem to have been squashed. During my playthrough I had only one gameplay affecting bug at the end of the game but it wasn't major.

 

[Falksi]

The early Gothic games are obviously where it's at, but Risen 2 is way better than most action-RPGs of that era. The humour and smatterings of sexism and racism alone has it head and shoulders above a ton of others...



Big shame 3 abandoned that direction.

Play Vendetta - The Curse of Raven's Cry. You'll love it.

Sweet, literally bought it just before Xmas on the back of a recommendation on here, so will probably get it tucked in after I finish my BG2 playthrough.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also, whether Bjorn was fixated on ELEX instead of Gothic or not, he was not the one who personally designed all the systems and the entire world in Elex 2. Therefore, I am definitely not holding my breath for a game made by the people responsible for these things.

Although he certainly shares a lot of the blame for greenlighting all that terrible shit.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

 

[Rhobar121]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

He is mentally disabled

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

It's really weird that they never went for the most obvious easy money to get back on your feet option, which was G1/2 EE.

Would definitely be preferable to elex part whatever as well.

 

[Konjad]

It's really weird that they never went for the most obvious easy money to get back on your feet option, which was G1/2 EE.

Would definitely be preferable to elex part whatever as well.

Piranha Bytes doesn't have rights to Gothic series. They lost it after Gothic 3 to JoWood. THQ Nordic re-acquired it in 2019, but they chose a random Spanish junior team to give it to and make a reimagining.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

It has been said by fans that he was jealous of Mike Hoge or didn't want to be under his shadow, because he saw Gothic as something that belonged to him.

So he wanted to distance himself from Gothic by forcing PB to focus on Elex, because Elex truly belonged to him, even though that wasn't what people wanted.

Basically he derailed PB by petty jealousy/rivalry/ego trip, which is surprisingly common in the game industry. No one hates a game developer more than one of his colleagues.

But that's just a theory.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

The nuGothic is a completely different thing that covers a completely different niche (a non-existent one).

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

It has been said by fans that he was jealous of Mike Hoge or didn't want to be under his shadow, because he saw Gothic as something that belonged to him.

So he wanted to distance himself from Gothic by forcing PB to focus on Elex, because Elex truly belonged to him, even though that wasn't what people wanted.

Basically he derailed PB by petty jealousy/rivalry/ego trip, which is surprisingly common in the game industry. No one hates a game developer more than one of his colleagues.

But that's just a theory.

I thought ELEX was a beloved Codex classic.

 

[Chuck Norris]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

It has been said by fans that he was jealous of Mike Hoge or didn't want to be under his shadow, because he saw Gothic as something that belonged to him.

So he wanted to distance himself from Gothic by forcing PB to focus on Elex, because Elex truly belonged to him, even though that wasn't what people wanted.

Basically he derailed PB by petty jealousy/rivalry/ego trip, which is surprisingly common in the game industry. No one hates a game developer more than one of his colleagues.

But that's just a theory.

I thought ELEX was a beloved Codex classic.

Elex 1 might be, but Elex as a franchise isn't.

 

[toro]

Why is Bjorn hated so much anyway?

It has been said by fans that he was jealous of Mike Hoge or didn't want to be under his shadow, because he saw Gothic as something that belonged to him.

So he wanted to distance himself from Gothic by forcing PB to focus on Elex, because Elex truly belonged to him, even though that wasn't what people wanted.

Basically he derailed PB by petty jealousy/rivalry/ego trip, which is surprisingly common in the game industry. No one hates a game developer more than one of his colleagues.

But that's just a theory.

I thought ELEX was a beloved Codex classic.

It's a meme started by the resident rat king and more like a codex inside joke. The game was mediocre at best.

Next time read the memo

 

[Herumor]

 

[Zoo]

It's really weird that they never went for the most obvious easy money to get back on your feet option, which was G1/2 EE.

Would definitely be preferable to elex part whatever as well.

Piranha Bytes doesn't have rights to Gothic series. They lost it after Gothic 3 to JoWood. THQ Nordic re-acquired it in 2019, but they chose a random Spanish junior team to give it to and make a reimagining.

As far as I know, JoWooD had the rights of Gothic 3 and 4, but they hadn't got the rights ot Gothic 1 or a potential Gothic 5. PB regained the rights of the series in 2011. THQ Nordic acquired the IP with PB in 2019.

 

[Tweed]

Sad to see another iconic RPG developer in its death throes, but I also can't disagree with many of the comments here.

To give an honest appraisal of PB you have to admit they are one of the biggest underachievers in the history of cRPGs. One would think that 25 years of making the same game over and over again would result in that game becoming pretty fucking amazing. Each new title should build on the strengths of its predecessor while addressing its flaws and expanding the formula in new and exciting directions.

And yet with PB it has always been ups and downs, and a bizarre pattern where the early games in each series are the best ones (Gothic 1 and 2, Risen 1, ELEX 1) and the slam dunk sequels all suck ass (Gothic 3, Risen 2 and 3, ELEX 2). How do you explain that?

Ultimately I don't think anyone at PB can say they weren't given a chance to succeed. Most studios are killed off after one or two bad games, but PB survived a lot more than that.

Witnessing the rise and fall of countless developers has shown me that game dev is all about throwing yourself at the ground and missing. None of these people ever seem to figure out why their past games were hits and why their new ones are flops.

 

[Outlander]

• They started something awesome with Gothic but then fucked it up.
• They started something good with Risen but then fucked it up.
• They started something alright with ELEX but then fucked it up.
• Some fans out of nowhere released a free G2 total conversion mod that is at least on the same level as G1 & G2 which got outstanding reviews.
• Publisher funds G1 remake but instead of giving it to PB, they gave it to some no-name studio.

It was just a matter of time.

 

[Scythifuge]

Bjorn sucks. After reading his comments and watching his youtube videos and his refusal to do what needed to be done for the sake and benefit of PB, I think he is a cluster b psychopath. His "wife" absolutely sucks, and you can tell that the woke crap in Elex 2 was her idea (white Jax abandoning his wife and kid and blaming people "not listening" to him for going from epic hero to shitty husband and father because that is how wokesters view men.) She probably pegs Bjorn. THQ Nordic sucks because they did practically ZERO marketing and decided to release an ugly and broken game at the same time as Elden Ring. They tyhen ignored tech support requests and refused to release more patches. Their moderator Zyddie sucks because he/she/it was dropping ban hammers on people who were justifiably calling THQ/PB out for their crap. Embracer is retarded because they made a big gamble and lost and is now destroying studios like a cheap, knock-off EA.

It is a sign of the times.

 

[TheSoul]

PB confuses me. I've only played Gothic, Risen, and half of Elex and Gothic 2 but their priorities are completely backwards. These games' strongest elements are the small details in the environment and how they make you earn your place in a faction. But the team seems more interested in making environments bigger than what they can handle and turning the 2nd half into a linear action game with a save the world plot.

 

[scytheavatar]

PB confuses me. I've only played Gothic, Risen, and half of Elex and Gothic 2 but their priorities are completely backwards. These games' strongest elements are the small details in the environment and how they make you earn your place in a faction. But the team seems more interested in making environments bigger than what they can handle and turning the 2nd half into a linear action game with a save the world plot.

There is nothing confusing about PB. Trying to sell to the Rpgcodex crowd can only get you so many copies sold. If PB wants to survive they have no choice but to make games that can appeal to the Skyrim loving normies, and it's hard to do so with indie small scale shit. So PB had to choose between going big or changing the type of games they make, and they choose to go big. Of course these people lack the ability to do that and always get pulled back down to earth.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

• Publisher funds G1 remake but instead of giving it to PB, they gave it to some no-name studio.

It was just a matter of time.

Well, we have yet to see how this last one turns out, exactly.
Their first attempt with the demo was almost a complete disaster (where decent production value was basically the only redeeming quality and everything else was a miss) but their declarations of intent and trailers after that are a bit more encouraging.

It would be absolutely hilarious if the best Piranha Bytes game in 20 years would turn out to be something not made by them.. Again, since Archolos already happened.

 

[Zlaja]

Big shame 3 abandoned that direction

Risen 3 has some decent humor, just like Risen 2.

Man Elex 2 was such a stark drop in everything from the first that I can't even be really upset, ofc I feel for the peeps losing their jobs n such but it's like they were repeating all their flaws n shit over again that they seemed to learn from when making ELEX 1.

I just resumed my abandoned playthrough of Elex 2, and I was once again reminded just how ugly most NPCs and Jax are. Can't get over this shit.

It's a meme started by the resident rat king

We started it in the Elex 1 thread, and in the end the Codexian meme effort helped turned the game into something pretty good. No such meme effort was conducted for Elex 2, because we just foolishly assumed that the sequel would be at least as good as the first Elex. So, Codex bears some of the blame for Elex 2 being a dissapointment.

 

[toro]

There is nothing confusing about PB. Trying to sell to the Rpgcodex crowd can only get you so many copies sold. If PB wants to survive they have no choice but to make games that can appeal to the Skyrim loving normies, and it's hard to do so with indie small scale shit. So PB had to choose between going big or changing the type of games they make, and they choose to go big. Of course these people lack the ability to do that and always get pulled back down to earth.

They did not try to sell to the codex crowd (I'm not sure Bjorn and Jenny know about the codex) and the original Gothic games are loved by many people outside of the codex. In fact they chased the Skyrim normies.

Almost everything you wrote is wrong. Kudos, wrong_carlo would be proud of you.