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Elex 3 potentially cancelled. PB Studio might be getting closed down

adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
via Reddit reporting.








Further "sources" / speculation threads and posts:
 
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ungalo

Member
I thought they were making the Gothic remake themselves but actually no. It's kind of a legendary studio despite the buggy mess they released.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
ungalo said:
I thought they were making the Gothic remake themselves but actually no. It's kind of a legendary studio despite the buggy mess they released.
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Nah, that would be Alkimia, a spanish studio founded specifically to work on this remake.
 
Denton

Denton

Member
That would suck. Only way it would not suck is if those with talent joined Gothic 1 remake team.
 
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crackajack

Member
I think the news last summer was 200 games are under development in their studios and most of them are unnannounced. Would be interesting to see the current number. I guess a ton of them might have been pre alpha and with finance department going apeshit with cost cutting, a lot might disappear.
 
chilichote

chilichote

Member
Oh no, ELEX was probably the hardest game I've ever played through, I've always wanted to play the second part since then, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
intbal said:
I blame DF.
Never covered a single PB game.
Ignored every one of my twitter demands to do so.
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Would you really really want DF analysis of PB games? To what end? They are janky games all the way through even awesome Gothic 2 + Expansion, which was by far their best game.
 
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
Fuck Embracer but also fuck Elex. Both games were trash. Actually all PB modern games were absolute trash. THe eurojank excuse is lmao. Theres a a ton of small indie studious outputting insane games and this shitty ass studio with all their free budget couldnt make a decent game. Sorry, not sorry.
 
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BacklashWave534

Member
The Cockatrice said:
Fuck Embracer but also fuck Elex. Both games were trash. Actually all PB modern games were absolute trash. THe eurojank excuse is lmao. Theres a a ton of small indie studious outputting insane games and this shitty ass studio with all their free budget couldnt make a decent game. Sorry, not sorry.
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Many people including myself like Elex. Quit acting like your opinion is fact.
 
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SlimeGooGoo

SlimeGooGoo

Party Gooper
Thick Thighs Save Lives said:
Gothic 2 was the first ever (W)RPG I played... this fucking sucks.
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Wait, so you actually like GOOD games?

The Wire Reaction GIF
 
Js562

Js562

Member
If true that's a damn shame. Running through Elex 1&2 . Shit is fun for jank Elex 2 is more smoother than 1 to me. Too bad now hopefully someone picks up the ip
 
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LazyParrot

Member
Not surprising. They've been making exactly one type of game for over 20 years, and after the first Risen it became abundantly clear that they either can't or won't learn from their mistakes. Whenever one of their games ran into issues or was met with a middling reception their solution was always "Let's do the exact same thing all over again, but even bigger this time!" All without increasing their budget and staff, naturally.
 
Mr Hyde

Mr Hyde

Member
I have Elex 2 in the backlog, just haven't gotten around to it yet. Love me some good ol Euro jank. They can often be surprisingly good, if you can overcome the flaws. News like this fucking sucks. Embracer is such a shit show.
 
Mr Wonderstuff

Mr Wonderstuff

Member
The Cockatrice said:
Fuck Embracer but also fuck Elex. Both games were trash. Actually all PB modern games were absolute trash. THe eurojank excuse is lmao. Theres a a ton of small indie studious outputting insane games and this shitty ass studio with all their free budget couldnt make a decent game. Sorry, not sorry.
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Ohhh this ignore feature is too useful. Begone asshat.
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Still haven’t started my copy of Elex 2. Sad news if true, PB made their own style of game that we just don’t see much of these days.
 
Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
elex-2-820x394.jpg

​
Piranha Bytes’ upcoming science fantasy-themed action role-playing game, Elex 3, may have been canceled, and the studio possibly closed down. An update from German website gameswritch seems to point at it

Update from January 17, 2024 (3 p.m.): In a recent article, colleagues from games podcast The Pod add more pieces of the puzzle to the solidifying overall picture. According to them, THQ Nordic was already actively seeking to sell the studio in the fall of 2023 - which explains why information to this effect first circulated in the German industry during the same period.

However, the prospects have obviously deteriorated recently - or at least not improved substantially: After temporary short-time work, the employees were laid off; Creative Director and Piranha Bytes veteran Björn Pankratz is said to have left the studio beforehand. Nevertheless, a viable solution for the team and project is still being sought.

Remarkable: Out of nowhere, another Piranha Bytes game appeared on the website of the Ministry of Economic Affairs during the course of the day - now with the working title 'Currywurst'. All other key figures are identical to the €3.2 million WIKI6 project, which is still listed under this name in the federal database. A requested statement from the Ministry is not yet available.
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The project codenamed “WIKI6”, presumably Elex 3, was recently removed from the German government funding/support website, suggesting that the game may have been canceled. It was set to receive a total funding close to 3 Million Euros. Access to developer Piranha Bytes‘ official website has also been restricted, and only the company logo can be seen.
 
kruis

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
How many studios does Embracer still own? I fear only a handful of them will survive at this rate.
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
Previous thread on the same topic, even if we can consider this more recent one as the confirmation:

www.neogaf.com

Elex 3 potentially cancelled. PB Studio might be getting closed down

via Reddit reporting. WIKI6 was (most likely) Elex 3. The project has been removed from the german govermant funding / support page. Sum of funding was ~3 Million Euro. https://www.bmwk.de/Navigation/DE/Service/Games-Projekte/games-projekte.html PB Homepage is semi-down...
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com
 
R6Rider

R6Rider

Gold Member
I played a little bit of the first and didn't like it too much, but it wasn't horrible.

How is the second compared to it?
 
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Allandor

Member
Roberts said:
It's a bummer. PB was were my main jank suppliers for over two decades. Elex 2 wasn't as good as Elex 1, but still a fun RPG.
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Yeah, really sad. Elex2 wasn't a big hit but at least should have had its break even because of its small dev team and budget.
I know they weren't good at tech stuff or emotions in cutscenes (or the last few hours of a game) but their games had something special no other game had. Also the nailed the atmosphere with the "Ruhrpott Slang" in the German version.

Doesn't really look good but I hope they get new games out.
 
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Filben

Member
Thanks to our government cutting funds left and right in all kinds of sectors and industries, including video game development, this comes to no surprise. With the minimum wage and taxes it's an highly unattractive region/country for developers to settle unless you do manipulative mobile games. Mimimi Games wasn't shutting down by accident either. It gets even harder than before to make a profit; IIRC correctly PB once said when they sell 500k units (I think it was Elex 1 back then) across all platforms they made a profit; with cut funds I imagine they would now need a million copies to sell, which seems so out of reach for the niché they are cattering to and what they're capable of (high production values won't come from nothing).

With our dismissal protection here I hope the devs have enough time to find something new.

Personally, I think Gothic 1 and 2 are still their prime works and are, even by today's standard, a benchmark for open world design. After Risen 1 it got worse, with people leaving the studio and only left them with like two or three guys from the origin days and you noticed it. I've enjoyed Elex thoroughly despite its jank, cobbled-together lore and themes and mechanics, but it had still that classic open world formular that's just ace with really rewarding exploration.

I skipped Elex 2 because even people who liked part one told me that it wasn't good and I hoped it would be better with their next game.

A real shame. I still play Gothic 1 and 2 every two or three years and enjoying them.
 
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Arsic

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
I’m hoping to try elex 2 later this year. I only played a few hours of elex 1 but liked what I played. I figured the sequel would likely hook me in more.

I imagine 3 would’ve been quite refined for their formula.

Someone call Phil Spencer
 
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