The End of Piranha Bytes, The Start of Pithead Studio

For those of you who may not be aware Piranha bytes has been in danger of closure after most of their staff were laid off in December of 2023 by THQ Nordic parent company, The Embracer Group. Piranha Bytes has been around for a very long time, since the late 90s and are a German game developer behind the likes of Gothic, Risen and Elex Series. All that remains now on the Piranha Bytes website is simply the studio logo and contact information and it would appear that they have been shutdown completely.
It was announced yesterday on the 8th of July that a new studio has been formed by the former creative director, game designer, story writer and composer for Gothic, Risen and Elex Bjorn Pankratz and his wife Jennifer (who was a game designer and story writer for Risen and Elex), called ‪@pitheadstudio‬
Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts are regarding this new exciting development...
#piranhabytes #newstudio #gothic #gothic2 #elex #gamediscussion #pithead #germangaming #girlgamerchannel

[@kommandantkeen]

By the end it felt like the Pankratzes were the problem; the game quality didn't keep up with the times and was just really bad, and instead of moving forward, they made PB just create the same game over and over again. After losing Kai and starting around Risen, the music just got bad, the stories and worldbuilding got so bad, it was already a hard time to try play through the Elex games.

[@andreengelbrecht8467]

OOF that sucks, starting anew. They going to have their challenged in steep competition with horror rpg type games. Unless its 3rd/first person play style. There there's actually a big gap to fill I think. Gothic, Risen and Elix didn't really have any horror vibe.

[@Dr_uberbabe]

At least the spirit will continue. I do agree they will have their work cut out for them, rebuilding themselves but if they can make games that are different and interesting like Gothic was then they will retain their old fans and hopefully grow bigger than before. I feel quite optimistic and am looking forward to what ideas they put forward in the future

[@andreengelbrecht8467]

@@Dr_uberbabe I also have lots of ideas that hasn't really been realized by any developer studio and I'm too busy to study dev to make it myself 😄

[@Dr_uberbabe]

@@andreengelbrecht8467 😂 now wouldn't that be a cool job though

[@andreengelbrecht8467]

@@Dr_uberbabe amazing job. I would love to do it. I just don't have the financing to back it🙈

[@maholics]

Björn & Jenny are NOT Piranha Bytes! The real responsible Team (for Gothic 1/2) left PB many years ago…

[@Dr_uberbabe]

It seems that way based on what I've read on reddit as well. I guess we can wait and see what comes from Pithead but either way Piranha Bytes is definitely over :/