Piranha Bytes Shuts Down: A Farewell Eulogy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ส.ค. 2024
- After 25+ years Piranha Bytes has seemingly closed its doors. Known for their work in the action-RPG genre with the Gothic, Risen, and Elex series, their games may not have always been great but they had a unique heart and soul that will be sorely missed. The small German developer had previously managed to stay afloat from publisher to publisher, from Egmont to JoWood to Deep Silver to THQ Nordic, despite never being a major commercial success, but has seemingly gone out of business as the latest victim in Embracer Group's widespread layoffs and budget cuts. Key staff members had already left the company six months ago, and although the remaining team members had hoped to pitch their work to land with a new publisher, such salvation never came and they were forced to terminate business operations at the end of June, 2024. This video summarizes the series of events leading up to their termination and offers my thoughts on the situation as a longtime fan, with a brief tribute to all the folks who ever worked at Piranha Bytes over the years.
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Gothic Gothic 2 Gothic 3 Risen Risen 2 Dark Waters Risen 3 Titan Lords Elex Elex II PB What Happened to Piranha Bytes Still in business out of business
If you've played any of Piranha Bytes' games, then please share which one is your favorite, along with a special memory or fun story of your experience playing that game. Gothic 1 is the one I have the most nostalgia for given that it was the first and how unexpectedly drawn into it I had become. A couple of moments that stand out to me are:
1) sneaking into the vaults in the castle of the Old Camp and picking a chest with thousands of gold in it, and getting real excited thinking I'd just found a huge fortune. I hadn't learned how to move more than one item at a time so I spent what felt like forever holding down the action buttons slowly moving one gold at a time in my inventory. I also didn't realize at that time that the gold would have literally zero value or use in the game.
2) meeting Mud for the first time and thinking I'd just unlocked my first party member. The US box art and screenshots made me think it was a party-based RPG with the four characters on the front cover and images of templars following you around on the back cover. That excitement would also be short-lived as Mud's usefulness quickly became apparent.
Gothic 2 was relentlesly hard and I loved it. Only when Dark Souls 1 came out I felt the same frustration and joy. Those two games were able to create perfect immersion.
I did like Elex, but it was more like Skyrim with fun exploration and great views from high areas.
my favorite is Gothic 2, and honestly it still lives on I think. I absolutely love playing Gothic mods, which are still being developed to this day, some of them being on par with the original game in quality, like Archolos, and I'm yet to play a lot more of those, I even learnt Polish just by playing Gothic mods, so that I can play the ones that were never translated into Russian (since I'm Russian myself). as for memories, it's got to be older versions of Returning that I played in like 2013, it might have questionable decisions with lore and story, but for me it was a long and compelling adventure that I immersed myself in whenever I had free time, day in day out
1. Going through the forest to the Old Mine from the Old Camp for the first time in Gothic 1. Made me fear forests and wolves in PB games more than anything else.
2. Hearing the dying sounds of a zombies and harpies for the fist time (with headphones on) in Gothic 1. That horror-esque atmosphere was something I missed a bit in Gothic 2 and in a way, only Death Stranding came close to that feel years later.
Gothic is one of the two most important games in my life, I've spent hundreds of hours playing it and not counting let's plays and related videos. Gothic 2 Notr was the first video game I've ever played and daamn, I didn't know how to use mouse and keyboard properly together, how video games even work and so on and this game wasn't friendly to a newcomer at all (not only to Nameless hero😁) But as my hero became stronger, I began to understand how games work and became stronger as well. It was hard af tho, in my first playthrough I would ask my brother every 10 minutes to help me kill something/someone, I was lost in the city or the woods for hours not knowing what to do and how to progress in the story. Sometimes I screamed loud because the game knows how to be creepy and when it's dark and quiet irl and you hear a skeleton drawing a sword, you fucking run for your life! Plus I'm a girl so I was scared in the woods or caves all the time😂 I didn't know about cheats, not even about walkthroughs, so I struggled all by myself (with bro's help) and the feeling when you're able to kill the black troll, when you find a hidden treasure, when you find out how to fight Seekers... Such feelings are unique and precious and I haven't found a game that would provide me such feelings since then.
Gothic 1 and 2 will forever be in my heart and I will always come back to play it. It gave me a lot, it was my safe place when I struggled with depression, it's more than a game to me.
Yeah, they're right when they say you don't forget your first one.
Gothic 1 is my old love. When I played it for the first time, more than 20 years ago, it had this special magic. Full speech, unlike the direct competitor Morrowind, with gritty dialogues, a great soundtrack, almost no loading screens, and the limits of the open world woven into the lore. OK, the story is very similar to Escape from New York, but that isn't a bad thing.
Gothic 2 tried to make everything better, and it did, especially with the add-in (not add-on) which created a whole new game. Objectively better than Gothic 2, with beautiful landscapes, but it didn't have the exact same magic. So, it is only second for me.
Gothic 2 will always have a special place in my heart.
It was SO good. When the farm popped up i remembered all the quests which is huge in just a damn field lol
gothic 3 also, It's still have some mechanics that modern games can dream about. Shame that morons forced developers to release game too early in unfinished state.
Mike Hoge told us in an interview, that after working 24-7 for several weeks finishing Gothic 1, he went for a walk in the city center again after a long time. He explained, that he was totally puzzled by the experience, not really recognizing the very fact that this world outside existed, feeling totally strange about what he saw. That kind of commitment is what makes any piece of art special. When I heard Mike tell this episode, I really believed that the man had merged with project and actually had lived in another world while making it, I really doubt that most of developers today have this level of commitment.
It is very similar to what a lot of creative geniuses go through in their young years. In their 20s, maybe early 30s, they have a lot of energy and great ideas, but as time goes on and they mature, that phase comes to an end and they transcend into a professional routine.
Mike Hoge was the heart and soul of the studio.
Where's Mike Hoge now? What does he do?
@@lechgolas6400 He is teaching game development in some school in Germany.
Everything went downhill after his departure.
lol
@@lechgolas6400 Working for hire on some obscure porn game, apparently.
Everything they did after Gothic 2 had only a trace of its past glory. People make the difference, and key developers are very important. It's sad that they left the studio. RIP Piranha 🥲 I'm waiting for the Gothic 1 Remake.
There is no one like them in the whole industry, RIP Piranha Bytes, you will be missed.
Maybe Spider but there's no telling how long they will be around either.
At long last, the sun has finally set on fun, enjoyable gaming experience.
It's only generated slop from here on out.
@@UNATCOHanka I still have small hope for developers to go indie or for Gothic Remake team.
Check out Pithead Studio if you haven't already and keep your fingers and toes crossed 🙏
This feels like knowing you will never see a friend ever gain
PB died when Mike Hoge left...all that came after Risen was just a shell.
Risen was the last game PB put out I'd say even felt like a really enjoyable, 'consistent' gaming experience.
facts 👍
Please elaborate, i would like to know more about.. 1.) who that is? 2.) details about his departure
@@sekarmaltum1695 1. Use google
2. Use google
@@sekarmaltum1695 1. Use Google
2. Use Google
Risen 1 was the game that made me love RPGs
R.I.P Piranha Bytes
I never could get into it after finishing Gothic 2 and NotR expansion, it honestly felt like such a leftdown from G2. Currently I am trying to play first Elex, but I have zero motivation to return to it and I have to force myself to actually continue playing it, such a shame how it ended. Maybe I will give Risen a proper try to see if the aspects that made G1 and G2 absolute blast, are still present in Risen.
@@lukaskubinec9608As a Gothic nerd with 5000+ h in both g1 and g2 i felt Risen 1 was the thurd best game of PB. The only game that brought back the original feeling of Gothic.
On my way to playthrough 10+.
Maybe you should give it a new try.
Rambler, you're the best!
This shot of Rosi from G2 when speaking of broken marriage was perfectly timed xD
RIP PB for the great memories. Playing Gothic 1 and 2 still brings me back to my early teens when I would spend countless hours losing myself in these games. I still love playing G2 and do so every year or so when I have the time. It's like reliving a cherrished part of my childhood after so many, many years.
But I know that it's just nostalgia at this point, something I never felt towards G3, Risen or ELEX. ELEX is too young to be nostalgic towards, but I don't think I will ever look back at it with the same level of nostalgia in 10-20 years. PB hit their peak with G2 + addon. Amazing considering that it was only their second game, but also sad because it was just their second game and none of the other games ever came close again. It almost makes the success of G2 look like an accident when looking back at it. They understood what worked in G1 and what didn't, built on its foundations and then proceeded to forget everything after they released the addon. Internal infighting between the old guard seems to be the root cause of most of the issues, some wanting to keep making Gothic-ish games (Hoge) and others wanting to break out of that mold (Pankratz). That and assigning blame for the G3 debacle, having lost the rights to Gothic, having to look for a new publisher and having wrecked everyone working on the game.
Risen was basically G2 with a new coat of paint, but never really lived up to that G2 magic. It's like they had a checklist of things to copy from G2 but didn't understand why those individual checkboxes connected into a cohesive whole.
Maybe it's for the best that PB finally closed, as it was more or less just them trying to hang on by continuously banking on the willingness of old fans to keep hoping for a true Gothic experience again.
I have no Compassion to be quite frank. Björn Pankratz ruined Piranha Bytes and now creates a new studio with his wife yet a majority of sheep keeps cheering him on.
This is the fucking Truth!!!
please remember that you are an outsider looking into a situation you dont understand. yes, I too was peeved about björns resistance to any form of criticism and his stubbornness, but putting the blame solely on him is oversimplifying things i think. Especially regarding the fact that he was project manager on the night of the raven expansion and they definitely nailed that. dont get me wrong, a lot of the creative decisions that where made under him were horrible, but its more nuanced than "one person single handedly ruined PB"
@@jcdenton853 It's not lol it's whiny echo chamber bs. There's no media article anywhere supporting your claim.
My God, finally someone gets it .Björn and his effing Narcissism ruined Piranha after Gothic 2
@@paulbreakable3302 He was the sole director of Risen 2, Risen 3, Elex and Elex 2, and every time, the same mistakes were made, starting with rebuilding combat basically from scratch every time to making the game world bigger despite having, like, 30 developers while using the same outdated and borderline broken engine with basically no people to hire to work with it.
The only reason why Night-Raven was good was that it already had the foundation of G2 to work on. He literally is the one single person who ruined PB after Risen 1.
Man, i feel damn sad about this news.
Gothic 2 was for the longest my favourite rpg game.
Risen 1 also has a special place in my hearth. So many good memories with these games
Rip piranha bytes, gothic 1+2 will forever be rpg classics
Risen 1 is one and only game from piranha that I have played so it also holds a special place in me.
Its kinda sad how you only mention these three amazing games. And everything else they released, especially after Mike Hoge left, is basically trash shovelware!
Gothic 1&2 + Risen 1 = All you need to remember from Piranha Bytes. Nothing else exists.
The fact their last game will forever be Elex 2 is such a sad somber note as well.
Elex 2 - first chapter is 8/10, second chapter - 6/10, after that 3-4/10
Gothic 1 remains one of the greatest gaming experiences I've had. The moment when I had to bend down and kill someone after beating him remains the only moment where in a game I felt like a murderer. Somehow the action being under another interaction layer just added so much weight. And these are the type of unique interactions that elevated their games above the rest.
I'm sad that the Piranha Bytes closed down even if they were on the path of decline. Once in a while they gave us something like ELEX which is an experience you can't get anywhere else in modern gaming, so yeah.. I'm going to miss them.
Now that you mention it. It really is extremely deep and without comparison in the whole industry. Look at all those billions of games that revolve around basically killing other living beings all the time. Yet nobody has any awareness, that he is killing somebody to progress in the world. Gothic is the only game that teaches children, (yes children are supposed to play these games) that killing is actually a very serious thing with grave consequences.
I'm with you. Gothic 1 and 2 are some of my fondest gaming memories.
Gothic 1 and 2 were my first entry into gaming and they will forever hold cherish memories for me.
Huddling in front of one PC with my two childhood friends and playing through gothic 1 on rainy days were we couldn't play outside.
Those games are responsible for kindling the love for games that I still hold.
They had shown me what incredible worlds could be found in games and what seemingly endless possibility's they could hold.
I still play through Gothic 1&2DNDR once a year around Christmas to remember those days I now hold so dear and to escape for a moment into nostalgia.
I will always be grateful to the PB team who created Gothic, for the impact those games had on me and for the masterpieces that they are.
Thank you PB for the best gaming memories!
Gothic 1 was absolutely my favorite. The setting was just so unique to me. I never managed to finish it when I first played it. Only years later I reached the end, but what most sticks with me is how the world felt alive to me. The forests were foreboding, the orcs scared me, every bit of progress I made felt Like I earned it and you could never tell what was beyond the bend in the road. A magical experience I've only had with very few other games.
From word to word ,bro. I had the same great experience first time playing it. The feeling that cannot be explained. Very imersive world . When you play the game ,its like you are really there ⭐️
That's is exactly the point of this game. You came into the barrier, no one cares for you, the prison is working fine without you. This feeling that you are a complete nobody and special everything in chapter one of this game made it so unique that it's still loved to this day.
@@LemurLogic 🙌in one word "masterpiece" . I give high hopes for the remake ,it looks good ,and you can see that they are trying to make it to be for the taste of old players and fans of original gothic,but it still cannot bring back that gloomy atmosphere of the original
@@Karadjordje-rb9ms True, I'm also hyped. But still the expectations are high, I would just be fine with updated graphics and no changes at all to keep the magic. :D
@@LemurLogic exactly bro 🙌
I platinum trophied both Elex games and I can personally say both were enjoyable and severely underrated. While both sold and reviewed poorly I still had fun and I consider them Piranha Bytes best games. Rest in peace Piranha Bytes, I hope you all find employment in other studios doing what you the most passion for: game development.
As a german-gothic veteran this is really sad, yet I expected it, since Risen 1 there Games were going worse. Elex 1 was a little bit of a glimmer of hope
Honestly, I 'wish' I'd liked Elex. But it was a fundamentally unpleasant experience for every minute of the hours I tried to give it to win me over. It just wasn't fun, or enjoyable, or sucking me into its dreary, boring, frustrating world at any point. It was just a gruelling, tedious experience and I'm glad I bought it on an incredibly steep sale.
Elex was boring beyond belief
Elex was the nail in the coffin for me. The last glimmer of respect I had for this company died with Elex.
Really? Elex 1 was the game that finally killed the company for me. And im glad they are gone. They truly deserve it. Pankraz this dumb POS! Stubborn till the end.
I am Jax, the most badass, most powerful Meta Mensch in the world, can destroy entire planets with the clapping of my buttcheeks....
Then he sleeps two or three days and can't even lift a rusty axe anymore. Pathetic field mice gonna roast his arse and have a field trip with him. Its fcking ridiculous!
Not to mention the entire game balance is so whack. You are completely underpowered, or you are overpowering everything. The moment you upgrade from your beginner stick or leadpipe, what ever it was. You destroy everything. There is almost nothing in-between. And this inconsistency is everywhere in the game, no matter where you go.
And don't get me started on the god awful gamedesign of the Jetpack. One of the worst implementations i have ever seen. God damn "Shadows of the Empire" has a better functioning Jetpack. And that game is 500 years old!
I only have played Elex, but man, what a game. There's definitely something special about it. Very, very immersive. Excellent. I'm so sorry they are gone. Their work remains
The slow fall of Piranha Bytes was one of the more painful things I experienced as a gamer, to having fallen in love with G1&2 and being dismally being disappointed time and time again with the small exception of Risen 1. It's better it ended, the community will take over as best they can with projects like Archolos or the Russian Returning (mostly for masochists of the game's systems, less so the quality of the content, it is absolutely brutal as a game and I love it).
Idk man, i loved literally every game. My order of favorites being gothic 2, then 1, then elex, then gothic 3 (modded), then risen, then risen 3, then elex 2. But i still absolutely loved each and every game. Im so sad about this closure man
@@FunkyPunk1995 Love how you skipped Risen 2 as that game was truly an unforgivable disaster.
@@bjstrife I actually meant to put it behind elex 2 but forgot. I havent played very much of elex 2 at all yet which is why its so low. I only played like maybe 2 hours of it to be fair
their biggest mistake is probably releasing Elex 2 near Elden Ring's release.
@@aryabratsahoo7474 well its tencents fault for their failed deal with the Saudi Arabian government and losing billions of dollars. They have been selling off dozens if not hundreds of studios and assets and canceling games and closing studios like crazy in order to stay afloat.
Its been a pretty big deal in the news zeitgeist
Also, love seeing Nyras at 7:50. That's one of the most glorious, iconic moments in all of gaming. I can still hear his voice to this day.
My ex gf loved the track "Vista Point", we used to play Gothic 3 together. Our journey ended years ago, and now PB ended too... life is sad.
I feel for you, brother. I am 33 and in the last 3 years a lot of what I held dearly has been torn to piece. My relationship, my career, even my health. Hang in there man, you're not alone.
The "true" Piranha Bytes had died somewhere during the development of Gothic 3 or shortly thereafter. We were most likely never getting games of the quality of Gothic, Gothic II and especially the expansion Night of the Raven ever again from that studio.
I still truly, deeply believe that former PB developer Mike Hoge working together with Björn Pankratz played a big part in making Gothic 1 and 2 so good. Björn is very creative (his group worked on NOTR DLC) whereas Mike always had those high and difficult to achieve visions (Game Design and Art Direction for G1, his group worked on Gothic 3 and then Mike left PB).
Of course with the music of Kai Rosenkranz on top then you had an amazing game. Maybe a 4th person who polished the gameplay would have been also nice haha
G1/2 melee combat still feels great to me
@@DerSektenspinner Ywah especially with how much smoother G2 made it with proper blocking animations and quicker movement. Playing on keyboard-only makes it quite enjoyable and varied, strafing around and blocking orc's attacks especially.
@@Kacpa2 Yeah once you got the gists it is so rewarding. Never understood the difficulty complaints, I mean the game allows infinite practice as cheats allow you to spawn everything, as well as the option to just cheat yourself invincible in case you are really stuck. It is like a built in superguide mode.
While flawed I thought Elex had a lot of potential. RIP, hopefully the devs can make things work at a new studio.
Goodbye Piranha, it has been nice for the first few games.
And you pleasantly surprised me with the first Elex game. Now the time has come.
I didn't get to grow up playing their games, discovered them when I played Elex in 2020 and decided to look into the dev. Gothic 2 is still one of my favorite RPGs and I feel that weird "nostalgia" for it even though I played it for the first time recently. Sad to see them go
That was a nice Anecdote about how Gothic was your special Game and how you even considered playing NotR in German.^^ Made me smile. On an only marginally related Sidenote: To the few People who, like me, are kinda sad that the Elex Trilogy won't be finished and is looking for their Elex-Fix, I recommend the recently released Sequel to Outcast, "Outcast: A New Beginning" -- Jetpack-centered RPG-Light Action-Gameplay in a pretty Sci-Fi Small-Open-World... and a bit of the occasional Jank, of Course. I recommend.
I remember when I got my first computer. My uncle pre-installed some games on it and there I had Gothic 2 Night of the Raven. Upon launching it for the first time I had no idea what was happening as I was starting with the sequel, but surprisingly the whole choice of making the nameless hero weak again with dialog options allowing you to play into the possible amnesia worked well in my case, I was able to still get immersed in that world because it was made to accomodate first time players. I played some of the game, but before finishing it I did ask my parents to get me the first one, and luckily enough we found it in a nearby store.
Close to 20 years after that happened I still consider Gothic 1 and 2 to be my absolute favourite games and I can't really playh any RPGs that allow me to level up my character using a skill tree or a menu. Nothing is as immersive to me as Gothic.
But it is true that Piranha Bytes had a decline starting with Gothic 3. It was still a fun game, but it wasn't a fully realized project. I did not play Risen or Elex for too long because I couldn't bear playing mediocre games from a studio that made my favourite games of all time. Thankfully the community is still strong, and I would rather wait 10 years for another mod of the same caliber as Archolos than get Elex 3 and 4 and a new PB IP in the same timeframe.
I feel very mixed on the closure or rather Björns bad leadership of the studio over the years. Björn and his wife, who opened the new studio Pithead with some of the money they made on the sale of PB to Embracer (their words) basically just blame the industry changing for the closure while being oblivious to the process. Yes the industry is in a very dynamic but rough spot right now but that doesn't excuse them not reflecting critically what made their games unique and shave off the rough edges all their games kept having after all these years which led to not being able to compete in their genre anymore. Nostalgia and uniqueness can only keep you afloat that long when you are not sitting on a golden goose or are constantly improving, and now seeing them opening a new studio (only björn and his wife so far) rather than allocating the money from the sale to make better products in time feels very disrespectful towards all other former PB employees.
for the life of me they just can't make honestly good combat in any of their games.
I am having the same thoughts on this.
When Archolos, the total conversion mod made by fans, came out and none of them even acknowledged what those modders have achieved on their own, in their free time, WITHOUT ANY FUNDING, that was the last straw for me. That was the moment where I thought that if I were a dev struggling to get my IP back on track and there was not one, but a whole GROUP of people willing to pour their heart and soul into this project that doesnt even pay off for them, and yet I still were unwilling to reflect on my leadership and that, maybe, I AM the problem, not the others..? Yeah, no, thank you very much for your efforts, Björn, but that spark of yours? Its gone. You could have done everything but decided to do nothing. Nada. That is when its time to go, baby.
No shit dude you sound silly here. Allocating the money from the sale to make better products in time??? That's not how the industry works. You sell to a publisher like THQ Embracer because you do not have the private capital to get an AA studio with 30+ employees running. Do you really think there would have been any other difference besides personal bankruptcy had they poured that money into Elex 3? Besides, funding for Elex 3 was secured with state fundings of 3.2M. It was THQ/Embracer that no longer wanted to pay for the studio.
Pankratz served the very same community with the very same games for years, and in the recent past had made some international entrance even, hence why we are talking here in english. Elex was a commercial success. Only Elex 2 was not.
Fixing the problems might have simply been impossible with the ressources given. Elex 2 runs on the same homebrew engine as Gothic 3. Making a new engine is costy and a risk, it takes years for a small developer studio to make a stable product. Using an existing engine for their games was not an option. No one would have bought them had they looked like any other game.
@@fromthedepths20 Complete Bullcrap. PB has been working with the modding community for years. I was deeply involved in that community back in the day and can expose all of you as liars here.
Thankfully some of the devs formed a new studio. Hopefully they are able to find success. I love piranha bytes.
Well, these devs are one of the reasons why PB went downhill.
What is the name of new studio?
Frankly, I don't think they deserve success. They've been living off the people's nostalgia for their past games for far too long.
@@arsenii_yavorskyiyeah, it's not like they've been making other games since then and trying to evolve their formula or anything...
Oh, wait...
@@truehare Evolve? I like PB, but they've just remade Gothik over and over; Risen and Elex are basically worse versions of Gothik, just reskinned.
3:25 word!
Gothic 2 was the first real RPG I played as a teenager. For years Gothic 1 and 2 were the definition of a good RPG for me.
Such a sad thing to hear, but on the other hand I am glad they don't have to suffer anymore. Gothic 1 and 2 were and still are some of the best games I ever played. I fire them up every once in a while. They left such a big impression on me and my friends that we talk about it even to this day. Thank you for the great games you gave us, wish everyone good fortunes in the games to come.
As a memeber of the new guard can't say i'm a little sad to hear this as elex 1 is my favorite game from piranha bytes and the game was even my introduction to every other game they made, but after elex 2 i wasn't sure if they could bring back the magic that was elex 1 for me. still i wish the best for everysingle one of the developers and hope they find success in whatever they do next.
Gothic 1 is my all time favorite game and the first RPG I played to death as a kid. I’m originally from Germany but live in California now. A few months ago I found the original box release of the US version in a used game store and it made me happy since I miss my old home sometimes.
As a 31 year old now, I remember myself as a 10 year old kid playing Gothic 1, I used to like the Old camp because it reminded me of the ancient Romans. I would replay the game many times over and over differently. But the Old camp I would go back to. I liked being a guard, going into the mines to fight the crawlers. I remember one time I got deep inside Gomez's castle and inside of a backroom there was a Slave woman. The only slave in the entire game I could find.
I remember killing Gomez for his sword and trying to free her. Didn't really like the Old camp much after that.
I didn't play Gothic 2 very much. I remember getting to a point in the story where I was asked to go fight dragons near the start of the game and then had no idea where to go or what to do, so stopped playing. As an adult I don't got much time anymore but I do plan to go back to it eventually and 100% it, as I understand its one of peoples favorites.
Gothic 3 was incredible. The peak for me. They really pushed the engine to the edge and filled the world like Rockstar does with GTA. The performance was awful on release and it's still near unplayable now with the mods/updates, it is an extremely heavy game for it's time. But back then, being trapped inside the penal colony in Gothic 1, to being free to travel all of Myrtana, Varant, and Nordmar was like a bird being freed from a cage. Meeting the King finally after all that time to tell him how much you enjoyed Gothic 1 before murdering him and making Lee king.
Risen 1, 2, and 3 are sort of encores, good but not as great as the peak. It's the same gameplay loop and questing as the Gothic series, but somehow worse. And in a less interesting world.
Elex 1 and 2 was an attempted resurrection of the formula into modern day gaming after Risen series kind of flopped. Same gameplay loop and questing as Gothic yet again, minor improvements. But the sci-fi/medieval mixture of the world was off-putting to me. The world was too interesting? Random? The world building/lore didn't make any sense to me in Elex. Like, I understood it. I just didn't understand why it WOULD exist in that world.
I saw a pretty sharp decline in the replayability and enjoyment after Gothic 3. And for a lot of players it was Gothic 2.
I felt like Piranha bytes has been grasping at straws for something to take their games to the "next level" for awhile now, sadly seems they ran out of time.
Ultimately, I owe a huge chunk of my childhood, teenage, and adult enjoyment to Piranha bytes developers for the wonderful worlds they have created for us to experience.
Thank you!
Thank you!!
Thank you!!!
For me, one of the best parts of Pyranha's games (Gothic franchise especially) is modding. G1/2 certainly have the special place in my heart but the modding is what truly made them so different from anything else (Polish, German and Russian communities changed the clunkiness into comfortability, irritation with some gameplay mechanics into neverending satisfaction with progression, lack of variety in a story into replayability).
Talking about Gothic - what sticks with me is this feeling of touching something unique: in terms of gameplay, worldbuilding and stroytelling. The sounds of nature, music made by Kai and the «Snowball» Russian dub of G1 always make me remember the lines of some characters and brighten up my mood whenever I feel bad.
Overall, every little detail in Gothic franchise is precious to me. Archolos, Dirty Swamp, Dark Saga and many other great mods only enhance these feelings. Even if I know a lot about the originals, these mods encourage me to explore once more, while giving a new (sometimes flawed) but, nevertheless, enjoyable experience. Hope to contribute more to the community work on all the ongoing mod projects and keep one the best RPGS afloat for others to see and give it a try.
It is not about nostalgia, it is about the idea that some games may not only influence your worldview but change your life for the better too, so you would always remember them because of that.
Lol the unworthy unappreciating partner analogy xD, I for one appreciate the psychoanalytical part of you Nocturnal.
I am saddened. Gothic 1 and 2 are my favorite games. I hope the remake does well. Rip Piranhas. You will be remembered. Thank you for your video Nocturnal Rambler. One of my memories playing Gothic 1 is when i discovered Swamp Weed during that sidequest New camp. I told myself. These devs know what's up! :)
Amazing video, i felt every second of it, thank you for making it
Loved PB back in the day with the Gothic games, but the magic has been gone for a while now. Feels like they spent the last 15 years simultaneously refusing to innovate or evolve with the times, but then also needlessly trying to fix what ain't broke. Their games still had some of that familiar charm but it was always frustrating that they just weren't as good as they should've been, either according to more modern standards or their own old-school formula. Can't say I'm too upset about them going out of business but it would've been nice to at least see them finish Elex 3 so we could get a proper resolution to Jax's story. RIP PB.
Its always sad to see small studios shut down. Risen 1 was my childhood game. Me and my friends played it over and over again and it made me love videogames.
Even if the elex games were not good no other game feels like them.
I hope someone picks up the pieces and the developers find new work they feel passionate about
Dude you should play Gothic 1 & Gothic 2 with graphical mods. They're way better than Risen 1, same type of game though. Risen 1 is when they tried to make new Gothic-like game.
Small correction: Björn Pankratz wasn't the CEO of PB, that was actually Michael Rüve. Björn was "only" the lead developer (and some other things).
Gothic 2 remains one of the most immersive games I have ever played. Most other games somehow don't even come close after all these years.
Kingdom Come Deliverance, RDR2 and STALKER trilogy match it, for me
6:05 spot on, I couldn't agree more.
Risen 2 was where I called quits on PB. As sad as it is, whoever made Gothic Gothic, was no longer part of the company.
But...The pirates were universally the most favorite part of Gothic II.
I just finished playing Elex, that was an interesting game. I love it, I wish they would have gotten to make the 3rd.
You were not a true PB fan if you're relieved to see them shut down. I love both gothics and risen, Elex etc. They had one quality that no AAA or indie copycat studios have - they were really doing their OWN thing. I loved Gothic 3, also.
I bought Gothic 1 as a kid because of how cool the armor on the back of the box looked. (Ironically, the old camp Heavy Guard armor.) The game impressed me so much with its intetesting characters, open world, and methodical character progression.
I followed a bit of Gothic 2's development (what articles and english translated news we got in the states) and bought the game right on release. I was not disappointed.
I bought Gothic 3 on release too, sure that it would wash out the disappointment I had felt with Oblivion. It didn't. I didn't finish the game right away, but it's one I go back to. It's flawed, but I really do love the world.
Risen flew under the radar for me, but when I finally played it I was wowed. It seemed so much like a replay of Gothic 2 for the purposes of doing a rebranded Gothic 3, but done right.
Risen 2 disappointed me. I never really got into Risen 3. I bought Elex on sale, but didn't really vibe with the game for the couple hours I played it. I haven't bothered to buy Elex 2. I don't know if it's just me, but the magic seems to have been gone for so long now. I'm sad that Piranha Bytes is closed, but I don't think I would have kept buying their games either.
Good luck to all of them in the future though. I hope all of the devs find ways to work on things they love, and are proud of.
I played the German Gothic 1 when I was a kid, using community created subtitles, and bought every release when it came out locally. Gothic 1 and 2 will always be the best. As an indie game dev, your videos and critiques have influenced my ideas and goals for a long time, sometimes I wish there was a powerpoint I could refer to :P Hope you keep making videos!
Good Riddance. Elex II was so bad that they richly earned their fate. I just wish that their legacy gets a deserving successor, as they did make several shiny gems and arguably gave birth to a genre - if the successor to that genre is found. My hopes are on Alkimia, currently working on the Gothic Remake. Hell, perhaps some of the talent from PB will find their way into that project.
I only played the Risen games, and I only liked the first one… but man, was it something special. Despite the clunky combat (which somehow gets worse than I remember with each passing year) and the rushed final act, I was in awe of… I don't know, THE VIBE. As silly as it sounds, my most vivid memory of it is some random NPC in Harbor Town playing a seashell flute on the pier as the sun was just starting to rise. Risen 2 and especially 3 never came close to creating that kind of atmosphere, and from what I've seen of the Gothic games, they don't have it either. I dread even looking in the direction of the Elex games.
It's a shame that Piranha Bytes went out like this, but I doubt they had it in them to make another good game. They kept learning the wrong lessons. For example: everyone liked the pirate quest from Risen 1, so they took that as a sign that making the WHOLE GAME pirate-themed was a good idea. But it obviously wasn't. Then there was Elex, with its off-putting mix of futuristic and medieval themes. It's as if the studio was in a perpetual artistic crisis. What a shame.
Gothic 1 and 2 ooze atmosphere.
Give them a chance if you still haven't.
To this day they are considered PBs magnum opus.
Boy did I love Elex.
This is so sad, but, expected, as you said, they where not same for a long time, I can't stress how much sad I felt with the direction Risen took with it's sequels and with the disappointing release of ELEX 2... far well Piranhas.
Great narration and video. Feels like a good bye message. You speak from my heart. I still have a glimpse of hope for the gothic 1 remake. Love your videos!
Oh no. I'm not one to read any news or get upset about most things going on, but this one tugs at my heartstrings. Gothic II was my introduction, asking for it on a whim, and playing it at a time when my English knowledge was in its infancy. I remember being able to sit in the armchair blowing my mind, and anticipating an invisible wall from stopping me falling off the tower roof. Minutes later I waltzed right into the brigand's lair and was promptly pummeled to a paste. The death sound, thanks to being used in other games, such as Pharaoh's Ascent when being devoured by huge arachnids, still makes me wince. The other huge surprise came from being tasked with harvesting turnips. Coming from TES Oblivion, where the majority of quests involved killing, the whole farm section of Gothic 2 blew me away.
Due to my lack of English proficiency I couldn't get into the game at all the first time around. However, this all changed a few years later. It became one of my favourite games, and I still haven't played a game which in my opinion did the Open World concept so well!
Several years later I would play and finish Gothic I. Both such unique experiences. Yet I still haven't completed the second game. Thank you for your videos on the franchise, I'll have to watch them all again, and perhaps pick up the game once more.
I highly recommend the L'Hiver mod for G2 if you want to jump back into it
After all it's the people that create those games not the studios. The studio is just the assembly of those people. They can assemble under a new name if they need to.
What are the odds of these people releasing a genuinely good game after so many mediocre titles?
@@arsenii_yavorskyi To be honest really slim. However there is no guarantee they can't produce a good game. Also that wasn't really the point of my comment. What I meant was that we shouldn't cling to a name rather to the people that make good games behind those names.
I truly hope they don't form a new studio. Their shovelware is unwanted!
@@halsaufschneider1446 well I want it though.
It's a sad day to hear this. Even though Piranha Bytes games quality often disappointed, I still had tons of fun with them and I have an affinity for the studio and their style. Getting devoured by a huge publisher like the Embracer Group was a bad thing for Piranha Bytes in my opinion.
I wish the best of luck for the Pankratz family and Pithead Studio! I hope that they will fare better as an independent studio. Who knows, maybe many former Piranha Bytes employees also find their way into their studio?
It's still sad though... But I think Spyders studio games has replaced that AA niche with real ferver.
But yeah, those early Gothic games, even up to 4...good times.
Spiders? The guys who made Greedfall? May be only me, but I really enjoyed thay game.
The Greedfall devs? That game was so horrible I actually got mad at myself for playing it to completion, which is rare. Glimmers of something good scattered throughout, but it never actually amounts to anything. Awful, simply awful.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi As a huge Gothic fan, I have to say that Greedfall had some enormous advantages:
- a good and balanced progression system, leveling up felt fair, not too easy not too hard
- good RPG elements
- excellent voice acting for an AA game and a captivating storyline with lots of twists
- decisions that actually mattered which made the game very immersive
- good artstyle
It's true that combat was bad and the overall game felt very limited due to the weak and restrictive engine, but otherwise felt like a really hidden gem.
Not really, Greedfall was pretty good, but Steel Rising was extremely mediocre
Nice video Nick, I actually nearly tore up at the end there.
As a Hungarian, RPGs were their games for me. RIP
I have mixed feelings about the studio as well. But, in the end, i'm left with sadness. The soundtrack in the end of the video says it all.
oh man this video warmed my heart
Just the same as you gothic-1,2,3 and risen-1 defined my taste in games and the reason i got introduced to programming and everything it was one of the best things to happen in my life.
Some of the moments are
1) i thought mud would fight alongside me so i put up with his annoying dialogue spams, but he ran his ass off after getting hit once by the guys outside in such a funny way i paused the game and laughed my ass off at the comedic timing of his scream.
2) in gothic 2 while crossing a wooden bridge to the place where the portal of the mages was, diego would sometimes get stuck and start circling to find a path,
Once me amd my homie were goofing around and there was a slanting roof where my head would get stuck at the end part (im tall), so i started doing the circling thing like diego, homie laughed so hard he spilled the juice he was drinking and stills tells me to do that whenever there is a low roof or ledge somewhere lol.
Oh man its so sad knowing we will never know what happened to the nameless hero and Xardas after going through the portal and that I'll never be able to play something like gothic again,
but sometime in the future i want to make an rpg inspired by gothic in 2d.
Well as the proverb goes
"All good things must come to an end"
As I stated on Reddit, I grew very apathetic to their fate.
All the good games they made - Gothic 1, 2, 3, Risen 1.
Then extreme mediocrity that came after.
Refusing to touch Gothic, but at the same time marketing their games with "Made by Gothic developers" which was half true to begin with, then just selling it to THQ altogether.
Piranha Bytes is dead, but Gothic lives forever.
Nooo! 😢😢😢
Damn you, Embracer!! 😡😡😡
Weird seeing this just minutes after you released it.
Many things you have said really connect with me, to this day there are many games that I do like but I will be like "Well its not as good as gothic was".
And this isn´t nostalgia either I regulary play through gothic 1 and 2 and the modding community is the greatest thing ever.
Well RIP Piranha Bytes and thank you for your video.
Always appreciate the talented people, never the company. They are not the same thing.
Man, I JUST bought ELEX on sale last week, already about 8 hours in and it's really charmed me.
Heard about Gothic and Risen for years, I'll have to add everything to my backlog. 😔
I wish they at least had made Elex 3 to complete the trilogy before shutting it all down 😢.
I actually really like Gothic 3. With the community patch it plays great. I will probably replay it again with all of the content mods, which I haven't done yet.
my heart suffers from this
Damn it, Vista Point hits hard.
It had to happened at some point and it's been a while, but it's always sad when it happens.
Very well said. I too was one of the small fan base back when they released. Personally feel Elix 1 came the closest to capturing the original magic. Even moreso than the 1st risen.
Gothic 1 and 2 worked, because they were not massive. They were contained in a small world, which was yet rich and carefully designed. On the scale of huge world map to explore, like gothic 3 or elex, I think this approach simply does not work. Yet, looking at games like World of Warcraft, the publishers maybe insisted on the studio to scale up their games to receive funding. I dont know. They defnitately should have stuck to the formula of the first 2 games. I think the orginal designer even mentioned something like that in an interview once, that starting from Gothic 3, the studio had some issues with the demands of the publishers.
This is sad indeed, RIP PB.
It's a shame, but it had to happen sooner rather than later. You cannot have the cake and eat it too, and PB wanted to make their usual PB-style games, but make mainstream games at the same time. Back when they worked on Gothic 1 and 2, and to an extent Risen 1 and Elex 1, they were more inclined to do their own thing, which is why it worked. Then, due to either misguided ambitions, publisher pressure or some other things we do not know, they wanted to challenge the big studios and failed, since their games were still janky, no matter how much popular ideas were incorporated into them, and these ideas discouraged old fans. You simply cannot operate in such a dichotomy that as a small studio. The truth is, PB would do much better as a even smaller studio, fully committed to the more hardcore fanbase. They would make games on an ever smaller budget, even more janky, but at a much lower cost that dedicated fans could realistically cover. They missed Kickstarter which worked for many studios working on similarly niche titles thus suffered inevitable fate. While I am not a huge fan how Björn and Jennifer Pankratz influenced the PB games, their decision to go for an indie studio attempt seems like the most logical choice in the long term.
I'm legit sad to see PB go. I got into their games through Elex which was a great AA RPG. Sad we'll never get a third game now. RIP
I fondly remember watching my dad play Gothic 1 as a child. He wouldn't let me play it until I was 12 and when I finally played it, it blew my mind. Gothic II had been released at that point as well and I remember getting up early on the weekends just to play a few hours. It heavily influenced my taste in and love for Action RPG's. So, thank you for all the good memories Piranha Bytes ❤
What you said is all true but I cannot help but feel sad that this is the end😢
Please consider support for the new Pithead studio, with old developers from Piranha Bytes !
Gonna miss PirahnaBytes. I was a fan of the Gothic series, but Elex and Elex were my jam
It's incredible the ride lasted as long as it did with the studio never having made a single big money maker. All of their games were flawed but I enjoyed every single one of them, even Risen 2 and 3.
That's actually not quite true. All of their games besides Elex 2 (which went up against Elden Ring) where commercial successes. They had a very tight community in the German speaking countries and eastern Europe, who write mods for their titles till this day. It is all centered around the german website World of Gothic, which even organized community meetings back in the day.
I actually liked Elex 1 and even Elex 2, sure the sequel had it's problems - but it was interesting enough for me to finish it twice with different factions.
Best RPG games I have ever played
Gothic 1,2 Risen 1 Elex 1
Once again, amazing video!
Its very sad for me to see Piranha get closed. I've got to see Bjorn and talk with his wife on one of gaming conventions back when Gwent and Forza Horizon 3 was showcased. Bjorn was playing Forza and i talked with his wife about their plans and pontential for revisiting Gothic in some way. Even got a somewhat blurry picture with them.
I might have been somewhat lukewarm about their more recent games, but i love Gothic 1 and 2, still found quite alot of enjoyment with Gothic 3 and Risen even with the games shortcomings.
JoWood taking the rights away just to implode no too long later didnt help then, if they could do another gothic game they might have done better, but i am not sure if Bjorn wanted to do it, especially given genre or atleast stylistic experimentation like they did with Risen 2/3 and Elex games. Gothic probably felt stale to Bjorn.
Farewell to😞 Piranha Bytes ,the developer of my most PERFECT & beloved game : *GOTHIC* (2001)
Ok but Elex was an absolute banger. That was truly them at their best
Gothic 1 and 2 will always have a special place in my ❤. even if i am Not a Gamer since more than 10 years. Gothic ist the only Game i Play once in a while
Gothic was my first RPG, the first one that completely absorbed me for hours and made me think of nothing else, nothing else I wanted but to play. I remember the experience of joining the swamp camp, and how I liked that "yellow crossbow" of the Jackal in the old camp. It wasn't easy, but I managed to beat him and get that crossbow - to then easily execute the queen in the old mine and use it almost to the end of the game. I remember the feeling at the end of the single game when, nameless said that "his adventure has only just begun". - I dropped everything and went to buy Gothic II. And I played like a fiend again. It's a shame that we had to wait so long in Poland for Raven's Night, released finnaly in 2005. I remained a Piranha fan, buying all their games on release. It's a shame, because all their games, although no longer as good as the first two Gothic games, were still fun to play. Well, at least it's good that there will be a remake of the first one, let's hope it's successful, I'm also waiting for an improved version of Chronicles of Myrtana. One thing is for sure for Gothic fans, as Nameless said to Ashgan - "everything will be fine".
At least Gothic 3 is having a kind of Renaissance with modding and the game looks and plays better then ever.
Sad to see the shutdown, flawed as the risen 1 may be I still enjoyed my childhood game. I do not mention g1 and 2 as I do not grow up with those 2 games.
RIP, loved the Risen games
People in comments complain about clunky design and gameplay like lol... Not every game should be clone of Elder Of Scrolls!
I think Elex with Elex 2 was quite nice games, as you remember Risen 1... Damn even Risen 3 was not bad, there was magic and fractions, and good atmosphere...
Downfall came from company questionable decisions
For example, instead of extending universe and world of Risen1 (It was quite success) they jumped on pirate train and made Risen 2 - they could have just kept making DLC for Risen 1 because it was much better game in conception, but even then, story in Risen wasn't finished
I am very sad now... Industry now will have much less options of open world RPG... Which already wasn't big
Elder Scrolls is just as clunky as Gothic and the whole game design is a mess. When playing without cheats you spend more time with inventory management and backtracking to sell your stuff than actually plaing the game. Fallout 4 was the nail in the coffin for me with Bethesda. Like how am I supposed to play a game where I need every piece of junk to rebuilt my settlements, when I am overloaded after picking up like five pieces of junk? Bethesda cheats thousands of gametime hours into their games with this crap limitation.
About Risen 2...the Pirates from Night of the Raven were the most popular guild out of the entire Gothic series in the World of Gothic community, the large hub where the modders and guidewriters gather, that even organized public community events back in the day. All of their games were always very tightly designed towards that community. It is also the reason why Risen 1 is so much like Gothic, after the changes made in Gothic 3 lead to mixed receptions, however most of these changes in gameplay were also attuned to the community, like the liberation of settlements from the Orcs - players missed that there was no final showdown with the Orcs in G2.
PB was lucky to get the community managment for free, which enabled them to make niche RPG for decades. The character Esteban, who appears in Night of the Raven and Risen is named after the admin of WoG.
And Adanos was pleased with what had arisen, he delighted in all the indie studios equal!
I saw the were remaking Gothic 1 and instantly thought of this channel, I had to find a comment I left on a Gothic 3 video to find you again.
This was the first video I saw and instantly sad.
I did see it is being remade by Alkimia Interactive and THQNordic. It looks good from what I can see so maybe there is hope for something good to come from the legacy of Piranha Bytes.
it's basically impossible to get a good immersive RPG at this point, all you get is unfinished clunky games with poor writing and poor controls. Each game being released repeat the exact same mistakes than older ones, the only thing 'new' being the painting
As if Piranha Bytes was offering good writing.
Only the atmosphere and World building was ever great. And the soundtrack. But apart from that even Gothic 1 and 2 were good for one playthrough, thats it.
@@MasterFeidn Yet the atmosphere and the world building were so immersive that people replay this game to this day. The stories of G1 and 2 were quite decent, but I agree that there are a lot of holes and incoherencies involved, and the stories themselves aren't anything reward-winning. But honestly, a lot of other AAA RPGs don't have good story writing either
@@MasterFeidn Gothic 1/2 and Addon were excellently written for the scale. Also dafuq your talking about Gothic II has so many mods you can play fresh content of base game quality even up till today. These were AAA games. Gothic 3 was AAA in production also, but released half a year too early. You have to keep in mind the technological limits of their times.
This reminds me that I really should get around to playing Gothic 1 & 2... eventually...