lordhoff: I read a quote from one of the leaders of PBs... Anyone else hear this? Anyone know if it is true?
Arkose: According to JoWooD Piranha Bytes retains some rights to the brand; JoWooD's rights extend at least as far as Gothic 5 but they don't say what happens after that game.
JoWooD's remains have been bought up by
Nordic Games "with the plan to reboot lots of games, IP's and of course communities". They have inherited JoWooD's publishing rights to the existing Gothic games but we don't yet know whether they also maintain JoWooD's rights to new entries in the series.
Prior to these acquisitions Nordic Games'
product catalogue appears to have consisted entirely of low-budget Wii music and racing games, which doesn't exactly fill me with confidence...
So it seems JoWood and PBs have a different take on what the contract says. Interesting. I guess we just have to wait. Meanwhile, I guess I should go find a copy of Risen (and Gothic III - I like to do things in sequence). I'll see if I can't refind the site and post it's address here - people here might find it interesting and speculative.
Found another from another founder of PBs that says that perhaps his comments should not be taken at face value. All very interesting (at least to me).