Piranha Bytes has shut down, Bjorn Pankratz founds new studio

[BruceVC]

After Piranha Bytes is now dead and gone, GameStar announced that Björn Pankratz and his wife formed a new studio. It's called Pithead Studios.

The article says that the two will finance the studio by themselves using the money they have from Piranha Bytes' sale to Nordic. They want the studio to be indie without a publisher.

No new game is announced but they said that the new games will be RPGs. They will be smaller and more dense in comparison in to the last Piranha Bytes-games. The games will also be more "brave" (I guess they mean more inmovative by that)

More info will be coming today.

Source: https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/piranha-bytes-zukunft-bjoern-pankratz-pithead-studio,3416007.html

Terrible news. Its depressing that such a prestigious and iconic studio like PB has gone under

 

[Infinitron]

The message to the fans on the Piranha Bytes website was removed sometime during June.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240602161529/https://www.piranha-bytes.com/
https://web.archive.org/web/20240624185026/https://www.piranha-bytes.com/

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Maybe it’s just my cynicism speaking, but I have zero confidence that the same lead that failed for years to capitalize on the Gothic franchise and to keep up with the rest of the industry will suddenly be able to start a new studio and write a smashing success story… on a tighter budget and with none of the past expertise his employees accumulated over the years.

I think they are done.

 

[Fedora Master]

Maybe it’s just my cynicism speaking, but I have zero confidence that the same lead that failed for years to capitalize on the Gothic franchise and to keep up with the rest of the industry will suddenly be able to start a new studio and write a smashing success story… on a tighter budget and with none of the past expertise his employees accumulated over the years.

I think they are done.

But that's the Codexian Dream. A guy who made a good game 20 years ago starting his OWN STUDIO and giving us THE NEXT REAL CRPG. Look at the success of PoE! Or Elite: Dangerous! Or...

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Talking about making the next game smaller and tighter sounds like they were able to draw proper conclusions at the very least.

Whether they currently have capacity to actually produce and release anything is highly doubtful.

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[Odoryuk]

Nothing lasts forever. Sometimes, even people who made something great, cannot replicate it, as there's too much variables that made Gothic 1 and 2 good games. I have no faith their new studio will come close. It's not enough to have one strong visionary, the whole company must work as one single entity, and I doubt many Gothic veterans are there.

 

[JarlFrank]

tl;dw: they (Björn & Jenny) founded a new independent studio and will make new games

 

[Darth Roxor]

not holding my breath

 

[Haplo]

Actually, having one great visionary - but also somewhat grounded / realistic and with organizational sense - might be enough. I'm just not convinced Bjorn has such a strong personality.

 

[Chuck Norris]

If the name and legacy is going to go away, it ain't no Piranha Bytes without Michael Hoge and Kai Rosenkrantz.

Michael Hoge has left game industry altogether, which is sad. This would be a golden opportunity to bring back the old team. But I think he and Bjorn might have had a falling out.

Also there are some rumors about how Bjorn was directly responsible for the decline of PB. So this could suck big time.

 

[The Wall]

HELL YA! Let's hope those RPGz will be zer gud! If their clothes are anything to go by game's story will be about AfD Disco Werewolves fighting against Globalist Gay Vampires for the freedom of Deutschland

Bjorn smells like german Tim Cain or even worse: german Feargus Urquhart. We'll see, we'll see... His wife from video must have been top tier german gothic cutie back in 90s

 

[Fedora Master]

Neither wanted nor needed.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Actually, having one great visionary - but also somewhat grounded / realistic and with organizational sense - might be enough. I'm just not convinced Bjorn has such a strong personality.

Hell, if anything I’m convinced he’s at least partially responsible of the current failure.

No hard evidence, to be clear. just putting together fragments of what I’ve heard over the years about his leadership.

 

[The Wall]

With so many other quality indie RPG Devs popping up like mushrooms after the rain, we don't depend on fate of this studio. Thanks for Gothic formula, if you can't any more deliver on it, new younger forces can

 

[Aarwolf]

Is the person on the left tranny or just a typical german woman?

 

[whydoibother]

Is the person on the left tranny or just a typical german woman?

High test stronk European womyn, a dog like you wouldn't understand.

 

[Eldrin]

I doubt we will see any good games from them, Björn never seemed to be able to grasp what made the old Gothic games so beloved among the playerbase, or even what makes any kind of RPG "Good".

Michael Hoge as seen here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNlLj6nxU0A (check it out, it's in English) - seems to be the one responsible for the Writing (Dialogues, Interactions, Narrative), as Michael at least demonstrated in the video shown that he understood what made the Gothic series so great. And all games that came after Risen 1, which were of dubious quality at best, completely atrocious at worst, were made after Hoge split away from the original Piranha Bytes.

 

[Konjad]

Björn is one dude I wouldn't trust on delivering Gothic formula. He is the main reason Elexes are so meh.

It's over, PB is gone, no more even half decent games from them.

I'm not gonna wait for anythign Björn releases. He really has no idea what was good in early Gothics and Risens. Instead, at best we'll get another ELEX 2, at worst we'll get another Gothic 3.

 

[Gandalf]

As I understood correctly they will make indie games from now and answer people's questions every monday, so feel free to shoot one in the comments. The name Pithead translates to mineshaft, because they're located (or from, I frogat what the said) Ruhr region which has plenty of those. The also did not staed if they are husband or man and a daughter situation.

Now the question is this a diamond, gold or coal mine?

 

[Skinwalker]

Does this mean ELEX III is back on the menu, boys?

 

[Krivol]

Now the question is this a diamond, gold or coal mine?

Peat...

 

[Abu Antar]

With so many other quality indie RPG Devs popping up like mushrooms after the rain, we don't depend on fate of this studio. Thanks for Gothic formula, if you can't any more deliver on it, new younger forces can

But can they, though?

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

From other videos I've watched, she seems smarter than him.

 

[Latelistener]

Polacks say that Bjorn and his wife left the studio in November, and the rest of PB wanted to cut ties with them and make a new IP using Unreal Engine 5.

Reading the internet, no one even remembers Gothic anymore. The general conclusion is that they were just making the same game that aged badly, although you all know that wasn't the case.

It somehow made me feel ancient and I'm not even that old yet.