Piranha Bytes

Piranha Bytes
GmbH (Private)
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded October 12, 1997
Headquarters Essen (Ruhrgebiet), Germany
Key people
Michael Rüve, managing director
Michael Hoge, project director
Björn Pankratz, project director
Products Gothic series
Risen series
Number of employees
20 (2013)
Website www.piranha-bytes.com

Piranha Bytes is a German video game developer known for their Gothic role-playing video game series.

History

On 12 October 1997, as part of the development of the video game Gothic, the Piranha Bytes Software GmbH was founded by Alex Brueggemann, Michael Hoge, Stefan Nyul and Tom Putzki. In 1999, the Piranha Bytes Software GmbH became a wholly owned subsidiary of Phenomedia AG. After a financial scandal and the bankruptcy of the parent company in 2002 the rights to the Gothic video games and brands were transferred by MBO to the newly founded Pluto 13 GmbH.

All shareholders are employees of Pluto 13 GmbH.[1]

On 22 May 2007, Piranha Bytes announced the separation from her former publisher, JoWooD. The Addon Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods was the first game of the Gothic series not developed by Piranha Bytes. On 18 June 2007 it was announced that Piranha Bytes and Deep Silver (games label of Koch Media) will co-operate in the future.

After JoWooD Entertainment went bankrupt in 2011, Piranha Bytes started a new distribution agreement with the company that acquired JoWooD, Nordic Games GmbH.

At Gamescom 2010, Risen 2: Dark Waters was announced; it was released on 27 April 2012.[2] A sequel, Risen 3: Titan Lords was released on 12 August 2014.

Games developed

Year Title Platform(s)
Mac PS3 PS4 Win X360 X1 Lin
2001 Gothic No No No Yes No No No
2002 Gothic II No No No Yes No No No
2003 Gothic II: Night of the Raven No No No Yes No No No
2006 Gothic 3 No No No Yes No No No
2009 Risen No No No Yes Yes No No
2012 Risen 2: Dark Waters No Yes No Yes Yes No No
2014 Risen 3: Titan Lords No Yes No Yes Yes No No

References

  1. [http://www.pluto13.de/index.php?navtarget=2&lang=de  Pluto 13 GmbH / Piranha Bytes]
  2. http://www.worldofrisen.de/

External links