Last week, we reported that Embracer had shut down Piranha Bytes and that two veterans of the company had launched a new studio called Pithead Studio. Björn Pankratz and Jennifer Pankratz, the founders of Pithead Studio previously announced their new adventure without talking about their past. However, in their latest weekly podcast (the second episode), they revealed a bit more.
Björn Pankratz and Jennifer Pankratz
“We announced that we would now tell you a little bit about what happened and so on,” Björn asked. “Now, what about Piranha Bytes? What happened there anyway?”
In response, Jennifer said that anyone following the video game industry would have discovered that a lot is going wrong worldwide, and not just in Germany. According to Jennifer, since the middle of last year, “large studios or publishers had to struggle on the stock market and many development studios have been closed”.
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She also mentioned the large number of people who have lost their jobs in the process. While many are optimistic that the worst of the turmoil in the video game industry may be behind us now, Jennifer doesn’t share those sentiments.
“We will still have to struggle with that situation for quite a while,” she said.
Pithead Studio founders explain their reason for leaving Piranha Bytes
To set the records straight, Björn mentioned that neither of them left Piranha Bytes voluntarily. “The whole thing did not happen voluntarily,” he said.
Björn said that they thought about the next step critically because it was not easy to “just ignore 24 years”. According to him, it was an emotional decision for everyone involved.
Jennifer explained that the reason they were unable to speak for over 7 months was that they were “still contractually bound to Piranha Bytes until the end of June”. She said that explains why they are just setting up their business now.
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Jennifer said after Piranha Bytes was sold in 2019 to Embracer, they thought they would all keep making games until they were old and grey but the economy said no. However, they created Pithead Studio to continue what they know how to do best “because we believe in it”.
Jennifer mentioned that they will be reinvesting the money they got from the sale of Piranha Bytes back then into their new company “and start over”. She said it is a bold move which is why it is important to have a community cheering them on.
Pithead Studio founders give insights on the type of games they’ll be making
During the July 15 podcast shared by Pithead Studio, the founders also took time to answer some of the questions they were asked by their followers after they published their first podcast. While answering the question about what happens to the Piranha Bytes brand, Jennifer also gave insight into the kind of games that players should expect from Pithead Studios in the future.
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“We no longer have anything to do with it [Piranha Bytes],” Jennifer said. “That’s why we definitely have a new name now and will also make other games in the future. They will be significantly more compact and therefore also somewhat immersive.”
The couple had earlier revealed that Pithead Studio will focus on indie games. The new revelation adds to helping their followers set their expectations on what the studio’s upcoming game (which by the way is going to be a while) should look like. Next week Monday, the couple promised to talk more about their new studio. You can look out for it here.
