Since you guys just mentioned Arkane, I just had a weird thought (the first person to point out that my thinking is frequently weird anyway gets a free trip to the dentist
).
Anyway, I got this weird feeling that PB might be working on
Arx Fatalis 2 . I know. Sounds crazy but do you remember when we exchanged PMs as we were wondering why Sascha Henrichs from PB was looking for a new job in January, Gorath?
Maybe the negotiations between PB and JoWood have already failed a looong time ago and they just kept it under wraps until now? Maybe PB managed to score a deal with someone (Ubi?) for Arx 2 months ago already. Now why Arx 2?
Well, KaiRo mentioned a few times that their next project would be very grim/dark. I think he actually meant this in the way the game
looks. I always thought it was an obscure hint that the Gothic III add-on might be one huge underground dungeon area or something like that.
This is supported by various comments from Ralf (the art director) who took a trip to Paris in spring (vacation with his wife) and said he would take a lot of phtotgraphs of old walls and ruins etc for creating textures for their next project. Obviously textures like that would most likely be used to create interior tiles.
Maybe the "next project" at that point was already Arx 2? I know. Nuts. But who knows...?