Piranha Bytes - 15 Year Anniversary Retrospective

There is only one of the original Piranha's still active and is currently running the show.

The Piranha Bytes developer team in its original form does not exist.

Quote from article :- "and many of the original employees are still there"

Conclusion:- The current team are PB in name only but not of authentic origin individuals that founded and contributed to the Gothics, furthermore, It has been documented that some of the current team have never played some of the Gothic games.

So another game made with that "original Gothic feeling" would not be possible.

We will have to 'make do' with the Risens complete with expletive swearing gnomes and other such casual and contemporary influences that may follow.

Originally Posted by Wulf
There is only one of the original Piranha's still active and is currently running the show.

The Piranha Bytes developer team in its original form does not exist.

I've seen people say that on the World of Gothic/Risen forum but Michael Rüve jumped in immediately to deny it. Some of the artists and PR people have certainly changed but unless someone can specifically name the important members who have left it's all a bit groundless.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
I've seen people say that on the World of Gothic/Risen forum but Michael Rüve jumped in immediately to deny it. Some of the artists and PR people have certainly changed but unless someone can specifically name the important members who have left it's all a bit groundless.

Kai Rosenkranz?

I don't have details but I have the same feeling that PB as it was no longer exists, and it shows in the games. In fact, I don't even consider the first Risen as a great game.

Originally Posted by Wulf
There is only one of the original Piranha's still active and is currently running the show.

The Piranha Bytes developer team in its original form does not exist.

The last time someone posted something like this at WoR, the PB CEO Michael Rüve said "This nonsense does not become more true by repeating it 100x".
He goes into more detail right here where he states that 9 out of 13 core members of Gothic 2 also contributed to Risen 2 on a continuous basis. For Risen 1 they had one more core member so 10/13.
Since 9/13 or 10/13 can hardly be considered a complete breakup of the original team, Mr. Rüve is usually not amused when someone spreads unfounded information about PB staff changes since the Gothic days.

Quote from article :- "and many of the original employees are still there"

Which is entirely true as we just explored.

Conclusion […]

Well… no .

Originally Posted by Nameless one
G3 is best PB game imo but it became playable years after it released.

I like G3 a lot more now than when it was first released, but I still think Gothic 1&2 are on another level.

G3 is fun for a while, but i usually get tired of it, never managed to finish it. Risen1 was good, but clearly not as good as Gothic1-2, it becomes more evident after replaying it.

@Vitirr - thats right, Kai Rosenkranz is CEO at Nevigo GmbH, Stefan Nyul is also at Nevigo.
………………………..
@Moriendor - G1 is the original game team form I refer to, not G2.

I've read somewhere in an article on the net that Mike Hoge is one of four co-founders of Piranha Bytes and the only one who still works in the team, maybe this is why some uncertainty exists among gothic fans as you point out.

kind regards
Wulf

Mmm I would certainly keep a big eye on a new IP or next game of PB.
G1 en G2 are one of the greatest games I ever played. G3 was still very good, it just missed a few things story wise and there were the bugs .

Risen 1 was fun, just too much dungeons and the end a bit low.

I played Risen 2 for quit a while, almost all isles unlocked, but I stopped. Why?
I didn't feel connected with any of the NPCs. I loved the theme and the background.
Biggest problem: the Combat, I was trying to fully side with the natives and go Voodoo all the way, but then you come across creatures that are totally resillient for voodoo and are too strong to fight like that.

I just didn't really wanted to see the rest and that is the first time ever in a game of PB

One part of the problem is the amount of information.
Territories outside of Germany are to some extend less informed than German players.
This can lead to complete "holes" of information and to distortions as well, especially through translations.

Originally Posted by Wulf
@Moriendor - G1 is the original game team form I refer to, not G2.

Well, I think Rüve picked Gothic 2 as a point of reference since a lot of people seem to believe that that's when PB delivered their best work. But even if you go back as far as Gothic 1: Yes, it is true that only one founding member of the original Piranha Bytes GmbH was still there when Risen was developed but other than that the team still had a lot of the same key players that were around from the start, for example (story/design) Michael Hoge, Björn Pankratz, Mattias Filler or Horst Dworczak. There are also more of the same guys between G1 and Risen in programming, QA and art but I reckon that story and design is "where it's at" so to speak.

So, whatever the reason for PB's (creative) demise may be, I do not believe that it has all that much to do with the people. I don't know. Even if it is a cruel realization but maybe we need to acknowledge one day that Gothic 1 was just a lucky shot .