Rumor: Embracer Closed Piranha Bytes Last Month, And A New Studio Has Risen From Its Ashes

We have reason to believe that Embracer closed another studio last month, but a replacement is already on the way.

We first found this info thanks to Twitter user Knoebelbroet. He says simply:

“According to a polish website, Embracer closed german studio Piranha Bytes (Gothic/Elex) last month.

There is no official confirmation, so take it with a grain of salt.”

Knoebelbroet cited a Polish website called CD-Action for the news. We checked this site, but the report is in Polish. We then found another post online referring to this news, this time in the forum for website RPGCodex.net. Forum user Habichtswalder shared this information:

“After Piranha Bytes is now dead and gone, GameStar announced that Björn Pankratz and his wife formed a new studio. It’s called Pithead Studios.

The article says that the two will finance the studio by themselves using the money they have from Piranha Bytes’ sale to Nordic. They want the studio to be indie without a publisher.

No new game is announced but they said that the new games will be RPGs. They will be smaller and more dense in comparison in to the last Piranha Bytes-games. The games will also be more “brave” (I guess they mean more inmovative by that)

More info will be coming today.”

Habichtswalder then cited German language website GameStar.de.

Based on what we can piece together from news from CD-Action and Gamestar, THQ Nordic, which is owned by Embracer, did try to keep the studio going for a few months. We reported at the start of this year that THQ Nordic tried to find a buyer for Piranha Bytes, and they would get to retain ownership of RPG franchise Elex if they were successful.

CD-Action claims that Piranha Bytes’ employees saw the writing on the wall and already went looking for games. They even shared photos clearly showing that the studio’s offices were already empty.

CD-Action corroborates GameStar’s news that Björn Pankratz, who was a musician and designer working at Piranha Bytes, has started a new studio called Pithead Studios. It isn’t clear how many people who were at Piranha Bytes will be joining Pankratz at Pithead Studios, but we have seen a trend of studios being founded by developers who were just laid off or had their own studios closed.

We ourselves reported on ShapeShifter Games being founded early this year by people who were at Volition Studio. ShapeShifter is working with InXile on Clockwork Revolution.

We don’t have a full picture on this situation at the moment. THQ Nordic and Embracer have yet to confirm this closure, and subsequently, as of this writing, Pithead Studios have yet to announce their launch. But whatever the situation is, we wish the people at Piranha Bytes the best, and hope they can continue to make video games.