Piranha bytes
| Piranha bytes
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | October 12, 1997 |
| Seat | eat |
| management | Michael Rüve |
| Number of employees | 30th |
| Branch | Entertainment software |
| Website | www.piranha-bytes.com |
| As of September 24, 2017 | |
Piranha Bytes is a computer game software development company and a brand of Embracer Group AB. Piranha Bytes was founded in 1997 in Bochum , the company headquarters is now in Essen .
history
On October 12, 1997, as part of the development of the computer game Gothic from the Bochum developer studio Greenwood Entertainment , Alex Brüggemann, Mike Hoge, Stefan Nyul and Tom Putzki founded Piranha Bytes Software GmbH . In 1999, Piranha Bytes Software GmbH became a wholly owned subsidiary of Phenomedia AG, the parent company of Greenwood Entertainment. In March 2001 Gothic was published by the German publisher Shoebox . The successor Gothic II followed in November 2002 , this time via the Austrian publisher JoWooD .
In August 2002, the parent company Phenomedia had to file for bankruptcy due to a financial scandal . The studio management and some employees of Piranha Bytes Software GmbH acquired the rights to the computer games as part of a management buyout (MBO) and founded Pluto 13 GmbH . In March 2003 Piranha Bytes moved from Bochum to Essen . All shareholders of Pluto 13 GmbH are employees. The company is a founding member of the Federal Association of Computer Game Developers (GAME), which was founded on March 6, 2004 in Berlin .
After the quarrels about the development and publication of Gothic 3 , Piranha Bytes announced on May 22nd, 2007 the separation from their publisher at the time, JoWooD . With the add-on Gothic 3: Götterdämmerung , a game in the Gothic series was developed not by Piranha Bytes for the first time . On June 18, 2007, Piranha Bytes and Deep Silver (game label from Koch Media ) announced a future cooperation. Without the rights for development remaining in the Gothic universe, Piranha Bytes continued to develop Gothic-style games with the Risen series . On October 2, 2009, the first part appeared on the publisher Deep Silver. At Gamescom 2010, Risen 2 was announced, which was finally released on April 27, 2012 under Deep Silver. Risen 2 was nominated six times for the German Developer Award 2012 (“Best RPG”, “Best Graphics”, “Best Sound”, “Best German Game”, “Best Game Design”, “Best Console Game”), and Piranha Bytes as “Best Studio". However, only the “Best RPG” category was won.
According to a statement by Piranha Bytes, the rights to continue the Gothic brand reverted to the studio in 2012 because JoWood's rights of use had expired in the meantime. In an interview from February 2012, however, Project Director Björn Pankratz stated that they are not planning any further Gothic game for the time being . Founding member Alex Brüggemann died in January 2013.
In February 2014, the release of Risen 3 was announced, which went on sale on August 14th. In the same year, the studio received the Gamescom Award for the best role-playing game.
On June 1, 2015, Piranha Bytes announced the development of ELEX , an open world role-playing game with moral decisions in a post-apocalyptic science fantasy scenario . The game is financed and published by THQ Nordic (if announced: Nordic Games). The game was released on October 17, 2017 for PlayStation 4 , Xbox One and Windows .
On May 22, 2019, THQ Nordic announced the purchase of Piranha Bytes (development team and trademark rights). Without naming the title, Piranha Bytes announced on Twitter in December 2019 that they wanted to announce the upcoming role-playing game they were currently working on in 2020. Various computer game magazines suspect that it is a successor to ELEX .
Developed games
| Publishing year | title | Engine | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Gothic | ZenGin | Shoebox |
| 2002 | Gothic II | ZenGin 2.0 | JoWooD Productions AG |
| 2003 | Gothic II: The Night of the Raven | ZenGin 2.0 | JoWooD Productions AG |
| 2006 | Gothic 3 | Genome engine | Deep Silver & JoWooD Productions AG |
| 2009 | Risen | Genome engine | Deep Silver |
| 2012 | Risen 2: Dark Waters | Genome engine | Deep Silver |
| 2014 | Risen 3: Titan Lords | Genome engine | Deep Silver |
| 2017 | ELEX | Genome engine | THQ Nordic |
Web links
- Piranha Bytes at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ DevPlay - How Many Are We? (from 0:01:00) on YouTube , accessed June 21, 2018.
- ↑ Michael Rüve: Piranha Bytes. In: www.pluto13.de. Retrieved September 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Risen - short info. In: World of Risen. Retrieved July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Risen 2 short info. In: World of Risen. Retrieved July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ The nominees have been chosen and the academy election begins! ( Memento from January 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: German Developer Prize . November 14, 2012, accessed July 20, 2019.
- ↑ The winners of the German Developer Award from 2004 to 2019. In: deutscherentwicklerpreis.de. Retrieved July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Robert Purchese: Why Gothic dev Piranha dumped JoWooD - And what happens next for the Gothic IP. ( English ) Eurogamer. May 5, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2012: “ Currently, JoWooD has no more rights on developing any further Gothic titles, so the rights are back - they will be back I think next year. I don't have the contract here. Very soon the contract runs out and we will get the rights back. And we knew that from the start. "
- ↑ BuckGB: Risen 2: Dark Waters Interview - Page 2 of 2 ( English ) gamebanshee.com. February 17, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2012: “ The Gothic brand still belongs to us, so we are free to develop another edition. There is no new Gothic game planned at the moment though. "
- ↑ Tobias Ritter: Piranha Bytes co-founder and Gothic co-inventor Alex Brüggemann passed away ( Memento from July 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Onlinewelten . January 24, 2013, accessed July 20, 2019.
- ↑ Petra Fröhlich: PC Games 3/14 with exclusive cover story Risen 3: Titan Lords + full version Assassin's Creed / available now! In: PC Games . March 21, 2014, accessed July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Benjamin Jakobs: gamescom awards 2014: The winners. In: Eurogamer. August 18, 2014, accessed July 20, 2019 .
- ↑ Georg Lucas Jakob Nisbach: Interview with Piranha Bytes ( Memento from July 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Die Welt zockt . September 22, 2014, accessed July 20, 2019.
- ↑ Elex release postponed: release in October - exciting trailer released. Retrieved September 17, 2016 .
- ↑ THQ Nordic acquires legendary game studio Piranha Bytes. May 22, 2019, accessed on May 22, 2019 .
- ↑ Mathias Dietrich: Elex 2: Piranha Bytes provides information on the 2020 announcement. In: GameStar . December 19, 2019, accessed July 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Marcel Kleffmann: ELEX 2 already seems to be dry. In: 4Players . August 16, 2017, accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Andreas Bertits: Elex 2: Piranha Bytes teaser announcement of a new RPG. In: PC Games . December 18, 2019, accessed August 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Peter Bathge: Elex 2 presents a chance that Gothic never had. In: GameStar . July 19, 2020, accessed July 20, 2020 .