Piranha claims JoWood forced early release of Gothic 3

Now that JoWood is effectively no more, Piranha Bytes is pulling no punches over the treatment of the Gothic series by the publisher. In particular, Piranha claims that Gothic 3 was forced out the door too early by JoWood.

”The problem was - to cut a long story short - there were a couple of differences in opinion between the publisher and us,” said Piranha Bytes co-founder Michael Hoge. ”And the whole thing collapsed when the publisher forced us to release Gothic 3 while it was not ready.”

”To be fair, if we had finished it in the time that we promised, it would have been fine. But as it was, the development took longer on the project, and 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.”

Subsequently, JoWood hired Spellbound to develop Arcania: Gothic 4, which received scathing reviews. Meanwhile, Piranha Byte’s Risen fared little better.

At the moment, Risen 2: Dark Waters is Piranha’s latest project, while standalone expansion Arcania: Fall of Setarrif is currently in limbo, though Piranha claims they’re finish it.