Fri, May 06, 2011 | 01:37 BST
Piranha Bytes and JoWood fell out over Gothic 3′s premature release
Gothic and Risen developer Piranha Bytes reportedly gave long-time publisher JoWood the flick in response to refusal to extend a deadline.
Studio co-founder Michael Hoge told Eurogamer the publisher put Gothic 3 out before it was ready.
“The whole thing collapsed when the publisher forced us to release Gothic 3 while it was not ready,” he said.
“To be fair, if we had finished it in the time that we promised, it would have been fine.”
Piranha Bytes was apparently disappointed by the publisher’s alleged refusal to compromise.
“Instead of trying to find a solution with us – how to get this right – they just wanted to release it. It was because of their stock market orientation, I think. So we decided to go separate ways then.”
Following the divorce, JoWood kept the kids, in the form of an ongoing right to develop another game in the Gothic series, but the new step-parent – to stretch an already extended metaphor – didn’t get on with them. The Spellbound-developed ArcaniA panned.
“Currently, JoWooD has no more rights on developing any further Gothic titles, so the rights are back … Very soon the contract runs out and we will get the rights back. And we knew that from the start,” Hoge said.
“We thought, OK, scenario one: they do a good game and it furthers the brand. Scenario 2: they fail and everyone knows why.”
JoWood is struggling to remain solvent and is rumoured to have shelved multiple projects.
Thanks, Evil Avatar.
5 comments
#1
YoungZer0
06/05/11, 1:49 am
This is actually good news. We can all act like Arcania never happened.
…
But they could use the combat system.
#2
TheWulf
06/05/11, 2:02 am
It’s funny because JoWooD went on to prove that they have a reputation for this sort of thing in regards to all their developers, as they’ve published many a shoddy product. But it’s okay, all the developers jumped ship and went to Deep Silver to live happily ever after.
(Gothic III is really good with the Enhanced Patch, though.)
#3
Phoenixblight
06/05/11, 2:06 am
You sign on to a publisher they give you money to invest in your company if you can’t pull the numbers or make the milestones its your loss. That piece of paper you signed is not decoration.
#4
Shonak
06/05/11, 5:40 am
@3: Correct, but Jowood are fucking assholes. They fuck up everything basically and somehow they survived until now, but well – they will soon be past, because they have already no money anymore. And also, that’s not really news. Everybody knows that the game was rushed due to Jowood. The only thing is that the news comes so late, a couple of years too late actually.
#5
Erthazus
06/05/11, 11:16 am
@1, “But they could use the combat system.
”
Bwahahah