Embracer Group may be close to closing down Piranha Bytes, the studio behind ELEX and Gothic

The video game industry is going through difficult times. The quality releases we have received in 2023 do not reflect the true state of employment in a sector where new layoffs, layoffs and even studio closures are announced almost daily. Now the rumors are flying again Hug groupSwedish holding company which was acquisition of many companies for years to now realize that the pace was not sustainable and start cutting corners.

In this sense, speculation now suggests that Embracer Group may be close to closing down Piranha Bytes, the studio behind sagas such as ELEX and Gothic.. A number of media outlets and profiled persons close to the holding have started talking about the fact that the German studio is facing at least a significant wave of layoffs, and in the worst case, even complete closure.

Embracer Group may be close to closing Piranha Bytes

This is what a German portal recently explained Heisesourced from two German video game journalists who head up the podcast The Pod.

“The Piranha Bytes studio from Essen is about to close. Video game journalists Andre Peschke and Jochen Gebauer talk about this on their podcast The Pod. The developers were laid off by parent company Embracer Group in December after working part-time since the fall, the source said. Creative leader Björn Pankratz has already left the studio due to internal differences.

Piranha Bytes still has a chance to find a buyer, The Pod reports, citing several anonymous sources. The team is currently in negotiations with various publishers. It is even considered possible that Piranha Bytes will retain its name and take the ELEX role-playing license with it. The studio recently worked on the third part of the franchise.”

Based on information from The Pod, it appears that All is not lost for Piranha Bytes, who could find housing outside of the Embracer Group, but nothing is certain about that. The German studio is best known for its legendary role-playing saga. Gothic, which made a great impact at the beginning of the century. They later continued to delve deeper into the genre with the aforementioned franchise. THE EX and with resurrected.