"Piranha Bytes and Nordic Games have announced an "edgy, dark, uncompromising [and] complex" open-world role-playing game called ELEX for PC and "current gen consoles". It's due out winter 2016/2017.
A vertical slice build of the game will be shown at Gamescom next month.
Piranha Bytes is the German studio responsible for the Gothic (not number 4) and Risen series of fantasy role-playing games. In other words it's been doing this for a long time. But Piranha Bytes won't develop it alone: ELEX is described as a collaborative project with Nordic Games. Nordic hasn't made a name for itself in development yet but has been making some noise snapping up old game licenses from sunken publishers THQ and JoWooD."
The press release blurb described a "post-apocalyptic science fantasy universe that puts players into a huge, seamless game world full of original characters, mutated creatures, deep moral choices and powerful action".
As a huge PB fan I'm very excited, though that press release sounds really cheap with all its 'edginess'. I would much more prefer if it was another Gothic (what everyone was hoping for), but this will do. I'm just hoping they learned from Rise 2/3 mistakes and that they won't go (at least not too much) for mainstream appeal.
