Members of our community had noticed that no more Piranha Basin TV episodes have been appearing on YouTube since November and that the Piranha Bytes website now only shows the company logo. In addition, Piranha Bytes' upcoming project, codenamed WIKI6, had disappeared from the BMWK's funding database (as reported by Gamestar and others.)
Now the german video game podcast 'The Pod' has spoken out and reported that Piranha Bytes has been affected by the studio closures of its parent company Embracer Group. The podcasters spoke to Piranha Bytes employees, among others, and found out that the employees had been informed in November. However, they were initially sent on short-time working in December to give the team time to work on a pitch for potential takeover bidders and avert the closure.
Talks with other publishers are ongoing. Embracer is also discussing to hand over the Elex brand with the studio in order to facilitate the takeover. According to information from the podcast, most of the employees were nevertheless given notice at the end of December. Björn Pankratz had already left the team in November due to creative differences. Parts of the team wanted to work on a Gothic, while Björn had finished with the brand. However, Gothic is to remain with THQ Nordic, also because the remake of the first part is imminent.
The future of Piranha Bytes is therefore still uncertain at the moment and is likely to be decided in the coming weeks and months. Will Piranha Bytes manage to find a new publisher and start anew? Will they continue working on Elex 3 or start a new project? In any case, it is to be hoped that the current situation will end smoothly for the employees.
Update: Gamestar has now also commented on the situation at Piranha Bytes and confirmed the previous information. However, Gamestar's assessment is much more pessimistic: Piranha Bytes now only exists on paper and it is almost impossible that a buyer will be found for the developer. This would bring an almost 27-year history to an end.
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