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[Dazraell]

There are some concerning rumors making rounds on various Reddits and websites about fate of Piranha Bytes, the creators of Gothic, Risen and Elex series and one of the subsidiaries of Embracer Group.

Recent radio silence from the developers, some discoveries by community and news about layoffs at Embracer led fans to be concerned for their future.

Piranha Bytes were working on a project codenamed WIKI6 (rumored to be Elex 3 and planned to be released in 2026), which appeared in the database of the German federal agencies as one of the projects receiving a grant for gaming industry. Now this project apparently has disappeared from this database. Alongside, the main webpage of the developer also recently changed and only feature graphic of the company logo.

Source: GamePressure

Fans of the famous series of games, Gothic, Risen and Elex from German Piranha Bytes, are starting to worry about the fate of this team. There are several reasons for this.

1. The studio's official YouTube channel has been silent for almost two months. The last video was published there on November 27th last year. This wouldn't be a concern for other teams, perhaps, but Piranha Bytes has been consistently dropping weekly videos showcasing various studio activities for years.
2. Strange things are also happening to the studio's official website. At the beginning of this year, all information disappeared from it. Currently, there's only a large logo there.
3. For this project WIKI6, most likely being Elex 3, disappeared from the database of the German federal agency, which is responsible for granting subsidies to productions from the gaming industry.

 

[danklord]

Gothic died so The Witcher could live

 

[Bloobs]

Not the last jankbender.

 

[Dazraell]

Gothic died so The Witcher could live

The most bizarre twist about this is that there is a remake of the first Gothic in development and is apparently planned for later this year. It's not from Piranha Bytes though, but from a different studio (Alkimia Interactive)

 

[ScHlAuChi]

It seems Piranha Bytes isnt closed and Elex 3 isnt cancelled:
They were probably sold to someone - as the project "WIKI6" they were working on reappeared today under a new name on the german games subsidary fund site - but with the same data as the old entry:

Currywurst (Arbeitstitel)

www.bmwk.de

 

[Dazraell]

It seems Piranha Bytes isnt closed - they were probably sold to someone - as the project "WIKI6" they were working on reappeared today under a new name but with the same data as the old one:

Currywurst (Arbeitstitel)

www.bmwk.de

I was just reading World of Gothic Reddit and noticed some concerning reports

Update 17.01: The Pod (gamespodcast.de), a famous German games podcast with good connections to the industry, released a special episode confirming that Piranha Bytes is apparently on the verge of closure.
Personal note: I grew up with their games (especially Gothic). This is a very sad day...

A brief summary:

• Björn Pankratz already left the studio last year due to differences with the team
• Piranha Bytes is definitely facing closure after more than 26 years (the process has probably been running since November 2023). The reason is the drastic cost-cutting course of the parent company (Embracer Group). Everything that is still early in development and does not belong to the top studios will be canceled
• THQ Nordic is not to blame. They have stood up for Piranha Bytes against the Embracer Group.
• There is currently a grace period from the Embracer Group, which gives the team the opportunity to pitch to other publishers
• First parts of the staff have already been laid off (Gamepodcast.de has seen the termination letter)
• Many things are still unclear (e.g. the question of whether Piranha Bytes will be allowed to keep the rights to the Elex series in the event of a sale or will receive them as a gift from Embracer)

Gamestar.de now also confirms this: https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/piranha-bytes-gothic-elex-schliessung,3406996.html

 

[Kaleinc]

Piranha Bytes the dust

 

[kanjobazooie]

All three fans are worried.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Gothic died so The Witcher could live

At least we have the remake to look forward to?