Arcania: FoS - Indefinite Delay

Looking at the German market I'm not really sure though who would be able to or even interested in carrying on the legacy.

I could imagine PB themselves, Kalypso - but rather not dtp. It just wouldn't fit in with them.
Kalypso is currently my favourite in that.
 
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I'm one of those few in this forum who feel sad about this news. Gothic 4 is one of those sequels that can be very enjoyable game if you can forget what it's predecessors is (like Ultima 9, M&M 9 or more recent example Dragon Age 2). Gothic 4 has some strengths and weaknesses. Linear gameplay, unvisible walls everywhere and poorly written dialogues are game's greatest weaknesses, but combat offers great fun, controls are responsive, game engine is solid and each of the new area is different than the other. I don't recall any other game than this that I can easily switching from melee, magic and ranged combat styles, and use them all in a fluent style. Anyway, the story is become interesting after a point and I have been waiting this Fall of Setarrif expansion eagerly. I hope they will solve legal issues and publish this expansion.
 
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I wonder if Deep Silver could purchase the IP from whoever it defaults to... they seemed to be quite happy with Risen.
 
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No one knows about the legal situation with regard to the Gothic franchise except for JoWooD and a few select people at PB. The assumption that JoWooD can only do Gothic 4 and an expansion is outdated and from before the time that JoWooD and PB came to an agreement over the Gothic rights. No one knows what that particular agreement included, however. Just about anything is possible.

Thanks for the input. Someone had posted a while back that the rights to the Gothic series defaulted back to Piranha Bytes after Gothic 4.

Regardless, I hope the series is simply laid to rest now. If PB isn't the developer, I would rather not have the possibility of the series falling further into mediocrity.
 
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Yeah, as far as I know, PB can make Gothic 5 if they want to. Like I said in some other thread, I wouldn't be surprised if we one day saw Gothic: Risen or Risen: Gothic, as the two are obviously based on the same events.

They would be stupid to do such a thing, and thus have already ruled it out. Why would they even think about consolidating two franchises into only one? Makes no business sense at all. If one of these brands is no longer strong enough to justify its own new game it's also no help to the other brand.
 
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I could be wrong, but I thought Jowood only had the rights to Gothic 4 + an expansion.

As Mo already explained, this was the info from before JoWooD and PB came to an agreement.

I have to say though that nothing JoWooD did makes it seem as if their rights got extended in the new contract. They've been working for years on branching out Arcania and leaving Gothic behind.
 
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I wonder if Deep Silver could purchase the IP from whoever it defaults to… they seemed to be quite happy with Risen.

The IP does not default to anybody. Certain rights may, but not the IP.
 
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According to the news on German sites it has nothing to do with that but what's holding back FoS' release is legal issues with the BVT Games Fund that funded the development of ArcaniA. Unfortunately it didn't get more specific than that. "Legal issues" could mean just about anything… including monetary concerns, of course, and who should get paid first for what and so on…
I think the PR gave pretty clear hints.
BVT paid for Arcania. Now they believe stuff they've paid for made it into the add-on - which BVT is not involved in.

It will come out sooner or later. Both parties want to earn money.

It's a moot point in my opinion though. I don't think that PB will go back to making Gothic games in the near future. If they do anything with the franchise at all then they will license Gothic out to third parties, i.e. someone other than JoWooD if JoWooD does indeed get liquidated.
Looking at the German market I'm not really sure though who would be able to or even interested in carrying on the legacy.
What you didn't say clearly enough is:
PB owns the Gothic brand. That's the only thing confirmed over and over again.

IMHO PB is the only company which could revitalize the Gothic franchise. I bet they will do it in a couple of years, for the simple reason that it's healthier to rely on two franchises than on one.
 
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Its is a shame though as Gothic 4 wasn't as bad as people make it out to. It was a soild game but suffered from what the industry call streamlining. It was still fun but you could tell it was meant for new players not the old fan base which Im part of .

It will eventually get released once the bankruptcy is finished and jowood needs more money. As it stands its probably due to some legal bullcrap.

Rember bankruptcy does not mean jowood will close down just restructure and see what can be salvaged.. I see this everyday in the US with big companies. In the US bankruptcy laws might not be the same overseas though.
 
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It's more serious this time. JoWooD needs an investor or they're dead.
 
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They would be stupid to do such a thing, and thus have already ruled it out. Why would they even think about consolidating two franchises into only one? Makes no business sense at all. If one of these brands is no longer strong enough to justify its own new game it's also no help to the other brand.

Sure, but they can't revitalize Gothic without somehow connecting it to Risen, nor do they have a reason to once JoWood is out of the picture. Everyone and their grand mother can see that the two series share setting and that Risen is only named Risen because of the dispute with JoWood. The two stories and worlds are so closely connected it would seem like an EA twist to earn more money if they somehow retconned it all and seperated it.

If someone from PB said right now that the plot of Risen was actually written as Gothic 4 before the dispute with JoWood, I wouldn't even be slightly surprised. It seems to me they've basically just changed a few names here and there, and removed certain direct references.

The best they could pull off is probably a "and somewhere else in the world.. " twist like DA2 compared to DA1 - different plot and characters, same setting. An approach similar to Might & Magic vs Heroes of Might & Magic is also possible, where the story is continued, but from different points of view. That could be fairly interesting.
 
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Sure, but they can't revitalize Gothic without somehow connecting it to Risen

Why do you say that? Is it because you think Jowood did irreversible damage to the name?

It's possible that's the case, but I think a PB developed Gothic game could invigorate the series.
 
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Why do you say that? Is it because you think Jowood did irreversible damage to the name?

It's possible that's the case, but I think a PB developed Gothic game could invigorate the series.

No, it's because it's the same setting. If they continue the story of Myrtana, they continue the story of Risen at the same time. All the events in Risen were caused by Xardas (banishing Innos/Adanos/Beliar at the end of Gothic 3 released the Titans that you face in Risen).

There are so many references to Gothic in Risen it would be silly to suddenly make "Gothic 5" and then discard all the references. Any Gothic title from PB would somehow be connected to Risen, I don't see any way to avoid that without serious retconning.

Of course, they could make a prequel to Gothic 1, during the war with the orcs or something.
 
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I don't know all the details of the things about the Gothic name between PB and Jowood: but I gotta say I always expected to Jowood to retire the Gothic name down the road.

Gothic 4's main title IS Arcania, with the Gothic part only being kept as a subtile. Indeed for a long time it wasn't even called Gothic 4, but simply had "A Gothic Tale" as a subtitle (which in retrospect would probably have been more fitting) and this (upcoming?) add-on has dropped the Gothic name altogether, simply being called "Arcania - Fall of Setarriff".

If Jowood comes through and eventually get on developping a sequel, I fully expect it to be called Arcania 2 and have no mention of Gothic on the box.

That being said I'm also amongst those (few?) who really enjoyed Arcania, so I hope this add-on will still end up being released eventually - especially considering how Arcania basically ended up in a "to be continued in the addon" kind of way :p

-Sergorn
 
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No, it's because it's the same setting. If they continue the story of Myrtana, they continue the story of Risen at the same time. All the events in Risen were caused by Xardas (banishing Innos/Adanos/Beliar at the end of Gothic 3 released the Titans that you face in Risen).

You're starting to sound like Wulf now...
 
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I thought the original plan was to have them be connected but they scrapped it? That's what I heard anyway.
 
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