Piranha Bytes
 | |
| GmbH (Private) | |
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Founded | 12 October 1997 |
| Headquarters | Essen (Ruhrgebiet), Germany |
Key people |
Michael Rüve, managing director Michael Hoge, former project director Björn Pankratz, project director |
| Products |
Gothic series Risen series |
Number of employees | 25 (2015)[1] |
| Website | www.piranha-bytes.com |
Pluto 13 GmbH, doing business as 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.
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.
In July 2015, Piranha Bytes announced an upcoming sci-fi RPG known as ELEX, which will be published by THQ Nordic.[3]
Games developed
| Year | Title | Platform(s) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PS3 | PS4 | Win | X360 | XONE | ||||
| 2001 | Gothic | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2002 | Gothic II | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2003 | Gothic II: Night of the Raven | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2006 | Gothic 3 | No | No | Yes | No | No | ||
| 2009 | Risen | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| 2012 | Risen 2: Dark Waters | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| 2014 | Risen 3: Titan Lords | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ||
| 2017 | ELEX | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||
References
- 1 2 Pluto 13 GmbH / Piranha Bytes
- ↑ http://www.worldofrisen.de/
- ↑ "ELEX is the next game from the studio behind Risen". Polygon. Retrieved 31 May 2016.