Nag Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Rockstar suing Remedy So similar.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 Yeah, because that’s not an absolute dickhead move. Honestly, Take Two, can you fuck off? We’d really appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Just a resetera thread, but rumours about Piranha Bytes potentially meeting their end with embracer, and cancellation of Elex III. Someone at the end says it's been corroborated on a german podcast https://www.resetera.com/threads/elex-3-potentially-cancelled-pb-studio-may-be-closing.806025/page-3?post=117723189#post-117723189 https://www.gamespodcast.de/2024/01/17/magazin-spezial-piranha-bytes-droht-die-schliessung/ (in german, obviously) Quote Sounds like people in the industry have known about Embracer wanting to close PB for a while, at least November. It's not decided 100% yet, but their creative head Björn Pankratz is already out and people have been informed about being let go. Due to notice periods, this will take a few months. Their last chance is finding another publisher/owner/financing opportunity. Source: newscast from German podcast Gamespodcast.de which has just been released. The first two Gothic games are really innovative, but I never managed to get into Elex. edit their website is also down according to this article (use google translate) https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/piranha-bytes-sorge-um-gothic-und-elex-entwickler,3406891.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Embracer sound like a right bunch of cunts. Shutting down Volition, Free Radical, and now this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Embracer is everyone’s acquisition fears fulfilled. A company buying a bunch of other companies then mismanaging finances and business deals fall through and you get lay-off’s, project’s cancelled and those bought businesses closed. I think I saw last year they laid off 900 something people, and now there’s more this year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 Just read that as well, seems like 2024 picks up right where 2023 left off. Supposedly a new gouvernment fund for a PB project appeared online, feeding into the idea that they might have found a buyer after pitching a new project. But the more likely scenario is that someone simply messed up while updating the database in the aftermath of some confidential info getting spread around. I admit I haven't played Elex II. It came out at a weird time and when I went back a bit later to look it up I realised even hardcore PB fans were rather disappointed. But when they're at their best I think their games have always been extremely enjoyable and a nice diversion from the usual AAA stuff or the more hardcore BGIII type of games. Definitely a loss for the industry and a massive blow for the German gaming landscape in particular, just a couple of months after the Daedalic debacle. As everyone else I'm getting a bit sick of reading news featuring the Embracer tag. I wonder how long until we hear something similar about the relatively recently acquired SE studios. Crystal Dynamics is probably safe for as long as MS is paying them to make Perfect Dark, but will the Montreal studios make it through the year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nag Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 More layoffs... https://www.xboxachievements.com/news/dead-by-daylight-studio-reportedly-hit-by-layoffs/ Lords of the Fallen and Dead by Daylight devs involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 Shit. I love Dead By Daylight. Unlike all the other horror games, it’s been going strong for years, constantly adding new content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 The Piranha Bytes stuff seems sort of confirmed, including the part about looking for a new buyer German, English and Polish translation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 That sounds almost optimistic? I'm not getting my hopes up though, it's very rare to see a last-minute saviour swooping in. I did order Elex II over the weekend, actually looking forward to giving it a shot, as bittersweet as it may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCH Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 A couple releases that were brought to my attention recently. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 And another bunch of layoffs, this time at Riot: https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/2024-player-update Over 500 people, roughly 11% of their workforce. To their credit they're incredibly transparent about all of it, but it's obviously not a good sign. Seems like a lot of their non-LoL/Valorant projects failed to meet expectations, except of course for Arcane (the show), which was a big hit. Project L seems safe for the time being but expect less stuff like Ruined King or Song of Nunu in the future, which is a shame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maf Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 Seemingly there severance packages are decent as well. 6 months of annual salary + cash pay out percentage on bonuses or something. Still, shocking amount of people to be let go. Apparently lay-offs are expected to keep happening to 25/26 or something. By then who’s going to be around to make games. I know nothing about game economy but something has to give. Hopefully there’s another way to cut game budgets without it being the workforce. Or find better investment. Although reading Twitter too high of investments during COVID is what’s killing a lot of these companies now 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 It’s definitely sad to see so many studios going under. I’ve never played their games, but you don’t want to see anyone get thrown under the bus. I was admittedly quite harsh when the team that made Gollum went under, saying “Good riddance”. Because the way this is going, it’s only going to get worse. I thought Saints Row 2022 was absolutely shite, but I didn’t want to see Volition shut down because of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
one-armed dwarf Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Rename this the depression thread but for real, tho Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKurosaki Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Fucks sake, Embracer. You utter bunch of arseholes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spatular Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 That sucks. would have been well up for a new deus ex game too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maryokutai Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 Not even 12 days ago I mentioned them here and how I was afraid this would happen. If Embracer somehow manages to go through all this without going bankrupt they will have 100 IPs and 10 employees. But yeah, what a shitshow. I dread to think what number of layoffs we'll be talking about at the end of this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGERMAN Posted January 29 Share Posted January 29 I'd given up on there being another Deus Ex, so I think I'd rather not have known this. It'd be nice if there was a way for these studios to buy themselves, and their ips, out the way IO did Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiofloyd Posted January 31 Share Posted January 31 This looks cool. https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/01/spiritual-successor-to-the-cd-i-zelda-games-arzette-comes-to-switch-next-month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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