Piranha Bytes, the German developer of the Gothic, Risen, and Elex RPGs, has reportedly been closed by its parent company, Embracer Group. The closure came less than six months after Piranha Bytes announced that it was "in a difficult situation" but was trying to find a way to move forward with its next project to keep the studio alive.

The closure was first reported by Polish gaming website CD Action, which quoted a former employee as saying that the studio closed at the end of June because Embracer could not find a buyer.

Shortly after the report came to light, former creative director Bjorn Pankratz announced the launch of a new indie company called Pithead Studio, along with his wife, Piranha Bytes veteran Jennifer.

"We wanted to keep doing what we love," Pankratz said in a video announcing the studio. "This seemed like the best way to do it."

"We wanted to do what we love to do,"

and "we wanted to do what we love to do.

The video does not mention Piranha Bytes, but a message posted on the Pithead Studio Discord points to an unhappy ending.

"As you may have noticed, things did not go well in the gaming industry last year. The same was true for THQ Nordic and the Embracer Group, of which Piranha Bytes is a part. Many studios were forced to close and thousands of people in the gaming industry worldwide lost their jobs. Sadly, Piranha Bytes was also affected by this.

In another message, the "Gothic," "Risen," and "Elex" games remain the property of THQ Nordic, the Embracer brand under which Piranha Bytes operated, and Pithead Studio has no Pithead Studio has no knowledge of or influence over what happens to these games in the future.

"All we know is that Alkimia Interactive in Spain is working on a remake of Elex. We are not involved in the production of the remake in any way and therefore have no influence. Therefore, we are as excited as you are and will follow it with curiosity."

Piranha Bytes was not a "big" studio, but it was deeply rooted in PC gaming: founded in 1997, its first game was 2001's fantasy RPG Gothic, and although it was not a big hit, Piranha Bytes was an ambitious established itself as a maker of Eurojunk. That reputation was cemented over the years by two more "Gothic RPGs," the "Risen RPG" trilogy, and two "Elex" games: the first "Elex," for example, "is a strange and flawed RPG that you can't always get anymore," we wrote in a 2017 review

Embracing the world of the game, we wrote in our 2017 review.

Embracer-owned THQ Nordic acquired Piranha Bytes in 2019, when Embracer's "buy everything that isn't nailed down" binge was in full swing, leading to hundreds of layoffs through 2023 and 2024, and the acquisition of Volition, Free Radical, and Pieces Interactive, and fell victim to the collapse of a $2 billion investment deal that led to the closure of other studios, including Pieces Interactive.

A message posted on the Piranha Bytes website in January that the studio was trying to find a partner for a new project has been removed; according to the Wayback Machine, the message was present as of June 2 and now remains All that remains is the studio's logo and contact information.

THQ Nordic has declined to comment on the closure.