Piranha Bytes has shut down, Bjorn Pankratz founds new studio

[dragonul09]

Like i always said, Elex was a pile of shit with a setting that not only made no sense, it was just plain fucking boring. Magic, old technology and uber technology just doesnt blend together.
Bjork should be hunted down along with his tranny thing that he calls a wife for what he did to the studio.

 

[fantadomat]

Risen 1 and ELEX 1 are good games that could hold their own with gothic.

 

[Steezus]

There was definitely always potential for a new Gothic game, everybody who thinks otherwise is smoking crack. Especially for a studio like PB with only 30 employees and the government funding they received over the years. Gothic is a fucking brand in many european countries and with Archolos and the upcoming Remake, farming nostalgia would've been easy as shit. But Björn rather put his GF into some schizoloid mishmash of settings instead of doing the smart thing. Shit feels like dude was just too proud to return to an old IP that made the studio a name and wanted to create something on his own instead of living in the shadow of Mike Hoge. And unlike other studios where the only thing left is the studio name, PB was clearly capable of creating games with some of their old design sensibilities, they just lacked focus and were seemingly immune to criticism and advice from their own fanbase.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

The combat in ELEX is atrocious.
I settle for playing ranged weapons (which are still SHIT) only because melee is borderline unbearable.

 

[Decado]

Elex is complete fucking garbage, both games were 100% terrible and the only reason Codex posters boost for them is because Europoors reflexively cheerlead for shit made by other Europoors. In reality, the only way PB have remained solvent is through government funding, because nobody buys their fucking games, because their games are terrible. Good riddance.

 

[Justicar]

Best german gayme ever

Good thing they used their own engine

 

[Justicar]

Best german gayme ever

 

[Rhobar121]

Best german gayme ever

You deserve some achievement for making a sequel that looks worse than the first part.

 

[Justicar]

Good thing they used their own engine

 

[luj1]

Like i always said, Elex was a pile of shit with a setting that not only made no sense, it was just plain fucking boring. Magic, old technology and uber technology just doesnt blend together.

It also has some of the worst factions I ever saw in my life

 

[luj1]

From a business standpoint, not returning to Gothic with the resurged interest after Archolos and a 'remake' of G1 in the works seems pretty stupid. People would D1P that shit en masse no matter how bad it would be.

Dumb and purely patriotic take

ELEX was a failure, no one "dipped" ELEX 2 and no one would "dip" ELEX 3

About Archolos, you have to understand this is a fucking mod, you brainiac. That's like saying TR would cause a resurged interest in Morrowind lmao

Just be thankful for Gothic 1-2 and let this mediocre company die, it's been a long time

Interestingly, more people are playing Gothic than ever before on Steam:

https://steamcharts.com/app/39510#All

Compare with ELEX and ELEX II:

https://steamcharts.com/app/411300#All

https://steamcharts.com/app/900040#All

Probably some of the increase is people's disks being destroyed and them repurchasing the games on Steam. I still find it remarkable that a 20+ year old game still has solid and rising interest, while their game from 2 years ago flatlined. It's also remarkable that a mod for a 20+ year old game can generate more interest than a recent release.

Seems to have been increasing already before Archolos though

 

[Latelistener]

I doubt Bjorn will wake up even if this will be his final game. They had so many chances to make a memorable adventure that could become a niche cult hit, but it never happened.

I personally don't believe that Gothic formula cannot be sold to the modern audience, but they're serving it wrong.

Every ounce of their budget should've been put into combat and level design, but they're wasting money by animating terrible written and directed dialogues and cutscenes.

PB had a chance to be reborn with Risen, but a lot of people left the studio during the development of Risen 2 when Bjorn took the reigns. Now it's like an old racing horse with broken legs.

 

[fantadomat]

The combat in ELEX is atrocious.
I settle for playing ranged weapons (which are still SHIT) only because melee is borderline unbearable.

Risen 1 had the best melee combat maybe in all of gaming. Kingdomcome have pretty good combat too. Mount and blade has a spasming meme combat lol.

 

[Zlaja]

ELEX was a failure

Elex 1 was a good game and made a profit. The failure of Elex 2 doesn't change that.

Elex is complete fucking garbage, both games were 100% terrible and the only reason Codex posters boost for them is because Europoors reflexively cheerlead for shit made by other Europoors

You're trying too hard, retard. Also, you didn't play Elex.

 

[Justicar]

You're trying too hard, retard. Also, you didn't play Elex.

Nobody played Elex.

 

[mondblut]

They were buying studios for their IPs, to inflate their price and cash in on sweet Saudi Dollar based on their huge portfolio.

We're talking about 1.627 thousand millions, that's how immense the loans are.

How to do game development in 2024.

 

[mondblut]

>Piranha Bytes closes down
>Larian manages to become the retard king of RPG development
>Jews are genociding Palestinians while the world watches in silence
It's not so much that this is the worst timeline, it's that we're descending into Hell.

It is always darkess before the dawn.

Here's to Jews finishing the job before the dawn comes.

 

[Tweed]

You're trying too hard, retard. Also, you didn't play Elex.

Nobody played Elex.

I played ELEX.

 

[Decado]

You're trying too hard, retard. Also, you didn't play Elex.

According to Steam I put 7 hours into it before I gave up in disgust. It's an unplayable fucking mess. You're an idiot, do yourself a favor and shut the fuck up.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I never understood why they didn't return to smaller scale games with constant high quality, something of the size of Gothic 1 or between Gothic 1 and 2 would have been perfect. Gothic 3 was already way too large for them, its a shame that they didn't learn their lesson for good back then.

They did? Risen was a much smaller and less ambitious game than Gothic 3.

Yeah, but then they decided to increase size again just to fail again, which looks to me that they didn't learn their lesson for good. And Risen 1 is not exactly small, its somewhere between Gothic 2 and 3. Elex is even larger than Gothic 3. They should have polished their engine and focused on games of the size of Gothic 1 and 2. A better combat and making sure that the games don't drop massively in quality near the end would have helped to build a better reputation. Instead everyone was wary of their next release, wondering if it will be shit or not.

 

[Peachcurl]

Hot take: Archolos is good, but overrated because as a mod it's graphically and mechanically so close to the original.

 

[SlamDunk]

Did any company get better after being bought by Embracer?

Warhorse Studios' status is still pending. Perhaps this year we shall see...

 

[PanteraNera]

The headlines claim that Piranha is closing:



In the video they claim to have some insider knowledge and that the sources are trustworthy.
Piranha is indeed closing.

 

[Justicar]

ARE YOU FUCKING READY FOR THE NEW SHIT

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

From a business standpoint, not returning to Gothic with the resurged interest after Archolos and a 'remake' of G1 in the works seems pretty stupid. People would D1P that shit en masse no matter how bad it would be.

This. They could even make their own Archolos instead of trying and failing to catch-up with the current market. If Boomer shooters are a thing and games like Ion Maiden find their audience, there's no reason a Gothic 2.5 from PB would fail if it was at least half-decent.