Piranha Bytes is the historic 27-year-old studio behind classic franchises like Gothic, Elex and Risen, and according to a report from Polish website CD Action, video game studio-killing publisher Embracer Group has shut them down.
This new report seems to confirm what was already feared, when back in January 2024 the studio took to Twitter to announce that their future was uncertain. Embracer was still making cuts at the time, it wasn’t until March that chief executive officer Lars Wingefors claimed the “restructuring” as he called it was complete.
CD Action’s report is informed by an employee of Pirahna Bytes who says that the studio had officially shut down operations at the end of June 2024. Embracer Group acquired Piranha Bytes back in 2019.
The report also features images of what the studio’s offices looked like in its final days, which amount to a place that looks like it’s being cleared out, and being used primarily for storage.
It definitely doesn’t look like a place where a veteran studio is busy making games. Instead, the report also claims that there likely won’t be an official statement made from Pirahna Bytes, so it can go “peacefully and quietly.”
It’s not clear if the decision to not release an official statement was Embracer’s or Pirahna Bytes, but in either case this is not the ending fit for such a long-standing team.
Embracer has done irreparable damage to the games industry in the short time it spent trying to conquer it with overspending and growing at such an accelerated rate because Wingefors and co. believed they could keep the good times rolling.
The ‘good times’ being constantly raising money from investors, paying themselves far too much, over-acquiring studios and IP while not taking into account anything about how difficult it actually is to succeed in the modern gaming landscape, and caring more about what looks good to shareholders above all else.
At leas that’s what the last few years of Embracer’s existence has looked like. Pirahna Bytes is now the latest victim of the short-sightedness that gave Embracer Group the worst reputation in the games industry.
Another team bearing the consequences of a few suits at the top, who keep getting the chance to do it all over again instead of being out of a job, as they should be, for causing such damage to the company and the industry in which it tries to reside.
Hopefully those at Pirahna Bytes impacted by this closure are able to land on their feet soon.