Piranha Bytes has shut down, Bjorn Pankratz founds new studio

[JBro]

Speaking of Gothic, when the fuck are the new patches dropping? The Switch versions shouldn't be the best way to play. It feels wrong.

 

[Shadenuat]

I think for el3x they missed opportunity to go full oldschool science fantasy. Its sci fi designs are kinda cold and bland. If it was more welcome to guardia jetbikes and sheldom cyborgs it would also make their dumb writing more forgivable
A sort of glance look at promos and trailers don't make it look more appealing than bad masseffect with unity assets

 

[Peachcurl]

How nice that posts about Archolos are being moved to this thread. Clearly more appropriate for a Gothic mod.

 

[Latelistener]

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.

Even if Bjorn will suddenly grow a pair of neurons to ditch AAA market for good, there are still questions whether they could replicate it.

At this point it feels like fans are better at understanding what made their older games great, than the current PB themselves.

Most "boomer shooters" aren't exactly boomer to begin with, as they have a great amount of modern mechanics in them.

You could even say that some of them are more experimental and innovative than current PB games, as they're basically making the same Gothic game, except worse in almost every way.

And most of them are actually very good games, so it could possibly make an impression that every boomer shooter receives a warm welcome, but look at Graven for example.

 

[Fearlessjay]

I liked Elex 1 and 2. Also liked Risen and Risen 3. Piranha Bytes were my guilty pleasure developer where I always enjoyed playing all their games but I know they were rubbish. Sad day for me. Gothic was also the first game I played in German when I first moved here. Can't say I'm surprised though.

 

[soulburner]

It will be pretty sad if PB ceases to exist. While Elex 2 was a big disappointment (mostly on the technical side, the gameplay, writing and a few other things were often on the verge of actual fun) I had some hopes for an Elex 3 or whatever their next game might be or might have been. There is something special in the way their engine works, similar to how the despised Netimmerse Gamebryo Creation Engine does things - you know, like an engine designed for RPGs, not RPG elements slapped on a first person shooter.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm not shocked. ELEX 2 must have bombed, and I don't think that ELEX set the charts on fire.

From their post Gothic games, Risen 1 and ELEX 1 were the good games.

 

[toro]

btw. the whole embracer situation shows very well how my recent thread about cRPG death was a result of business failure

The fact that the PB team gives a shit about keeping the Elex IP shows why they absolutely deserve to be shut down. Like why are they so obsessed with making an Elex 3 when the last game was a bomb?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/199483u/piranha_bytes_might_get_shut_down_by_embracer/

A small studio getting hit full force with the pandemic while having a studio lead that is extremely stubborn with keeping everything the same as ever, Björn once mentioned he would rather shut down the studio than expanding the staff and changing engine.

there is some podcast in which Björn is saying the above but i don't find it

 

[toro]

The studio definitely suffered immensely under his leadership and the silver lining is that if somebody picks up PB, Björn won't be a part of the team.

 

[toro]

Risen is a very pretty shell, made by people who forgot how to make quest seemlesly integrated in the world.

It's gamey, silly and it's not Gothic.

It's bettet than Archolos though. I have about 45 minutes in Archolos and like 3 hours in Risen.

... and this is why Ukraine must go.

 

[Abu Antar]

No one will pick up PB. That's a pipe dream.

 

[toro]

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.

He was talking about ELEX. Why the fuck are you sperging about Risen??

 

[luj1]

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.

Most do that nowadays

 

[luj1]

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.

He was talking about ELEX. Why the fuck are you sperging about Risen??

He overdosed on aftershave again

 

[luj1]

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

Nobody played Elex.

I played ELEX.

I played ELEX too and regret it

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

A shame. I'd sort of just become accustomed to the idea that PB would coast by on tax money from the German government, despite only producing a financially viable product once every 15 years.

Can't help but feel a bit guilty, as ELEX 2 is the first game of theirs I haven't bought, but then again, after Gothic 3, Risen 2, and Risen 3, I'm not sure that I should blame myself all that much.

And count me in as a +1 on the "ELEX 1 is good" camp.

I mean, it's shit if you can't deal with jank, but I also harbor suspicions that any serious CRPGer who can't deal with jank is in fact a zoomer in disguise.

 

[REhorror]

Is this it for the German game industry?

Mimimi closes down to after the terrible looking pirates game.
There's Deck13 but they make that terrible looking sandstorm game instead of the Surge 3.

 

[Roguey]

Is this it for the German game industry?

Mimimi closes down to after the terrible looking pirates game.
There's Deck13 but they make that terrible looking sandstorm game instead of the Surge 3.

Gollum killing Daedalic as well.

 

[Artyoan]

Elex 1 was genuinely good. I haven't played 2 yet. Sad to hear.

 

[REhorror]

Is this it for the German game industry?

Mimimi closes down to after the terrible looking pirates game.
There's Deck13 but they make that terrible looking sandstorm game instead of the Surge 3.

Gollum killing Daedalic as well.

Oh man...

 

[TheKing01]

Unfortunate, but they've never been a financially viable studio. They've made one decent title, one good title and...Gothic 3.

Played Elex 1 and was mildly disturbed at the lack of NPC reactivity in contrast to Gothic 2 (you can hang about in someone's house for hours as the NPCs scream "leave!" ad nauseum, you can draw your weapon in front of people and fire in a civilian settlements with similarily disappointing outcomes, ect ect). Never bothered with Risen.

 

[Lord_Potato]

While it is sad and all, what's really stopping sacked team from Piranha Bytes from meeting again, forming a new company, say, Piranha Reborn and creating a new Gothic-like game?

With a fresh IP (perhaps a return to pure fantasy), a lower budget, some crowdfunding, perhaps some German gov money and old-school sensibilities. Return to their glory days, before the large corporate owners.

"From the creators of Gothic" line might not draw millions like "From the creators of Fallout: New Vegas" did, but it can draw hundreds of thousands, and it's enough for a new, indie studio.

 

[Justicar]

LOL

 

[Peachcurl]

Is this it for the German game industry?

Mimimi closes down to after the terrible looking pirates game.
There's Deck13 but they make that terrible looking sandstorm game instead of the Surge 3.

There are the remnants of Blue Byte known as Ubisoft Germany.
Black Forest Games (Spellbound offshoot)
SureAI
Crytek
Egosoft
Digitalmindsoft
Fishlabs
King Art Games.
Limbic Entertainment
Shin'en (mostly console games, I guess)
Daedalic (now only a publisher)
Kalypso (probably better known for publishing than developing)
Astragon (publisher)

And then there's probably a few more small ones as well.

And of course there's a huge chunk of larger developers for online/browser/mobile shit.

 

[scytheavatar]

While it is sad and all, what's really stopping sacked team from Piranha Bytes from meeting again, forming a new company, say, Piranha Reborn and creating a new Gothic-like game?

With a fresh IP (perhaps a return to pure fantasy), a lower budget, some crowdfunding, perhaps some German gov money and old-school sensibilities. Return to their glory days, before the large corporate owners.

"From the creators of Gothic" line might not draw millions like "From the creators of Fallout: New Vegas" did, but it can draw hundreds of thousands, and it's enough for a new, indie studio.

You sort of already answered your question, in the modern market hundreds of thousands is nothing. And not many publishers will be excited to fund a game with that amount as the ceiling.

The fact that there's no easy way to make a Gothic-like at very low budget means only established studios should be trying to make it. While isometric games can be made at peanut budgets.