Embracer's Piranha Bytes Reportedly Has Shut Down - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 08 July 2024 / 1,730 Views
Piranha Bytes, the studio behind Gothic, Risen, and Elex, has reportedly been shut down by Embracer Group.
A former employee has told CD Action the studio closed its doors at the end of June after financing from Embracer Group ended.
The studio was hoping for €3 million in funding from investors, however, it never happened and the money from Embracer was only enough to support the studio until June. The team was hoping to develop a new dark fantasy game similar to Gothic using Unreal Engine 5.
Piranha Bytes CEO Michael Rueve, has yet to comment on the report that the studio has shut down.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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It's always sad to see a studio get shut down. Mass layoffs across the entire industry have already been bad enough.
Oh that’s sad. The first Elex was a decent game. They made several important games back in the day too.
End of an era. I'll admit I haven't touched many of their games, but still saw them as one of those stalwart middle-market RPG devs that just kept chugging along. It didn't seem like any of their games post-Gothic series was above a middling commercial success.
Hopefully everyone on the team finds a new dev home.
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