JoWooD revokes Gothic 4 date

By Robert Purchese Published 14 November, 2008

RPG may not arrive next year.

Update: JoWooD has explained to Eurogamer that Arcania: A Gothic Tale (Gothic 4) has yet to be given a date, and revoked the "late 2009" line a spokesperson from the publisher had recently given us.

JoWooD also wouldn't confirm whether we'd see the RPG next year at all.

However, we will still be treated to Gothic 3 expansion Forsaken Gods soon - UK retailers will sell the game from 5th December.

Forsaken Gods is supposed to bridge the gap between the third and fourth games in the series, but otherwise we know relatively little about it.

The developer, incidentally, will be Indian studio Trine, which has made some low profile PC games we've never heard of.

We've also yet to hear much about Arcania: A Gothic Tale, other than that Spellbound - and not series creator Piranha Bytes - will be the developer.

This will also be the first time the series will appear on consoles (TBC but likely 360, PS3) as well as on PC.

Despite the changes, the fantasy tone and setting of the world will remain - with the story set around ten years after events in Gothic 3.

Among the more interesting bits promised so far are a magically controlled day-night cycle, and the ability to hop on and ride all sorts of beasties.

The Gothic series has a passionate following, particularly in Germany, and has routinely produced alluring open worlds bulging with plenty of ferocious action. The problem, however, has been stability - with Gothic 3 marked down for the prevalence of bugs and glitches.

Head over to our Gothic 3 review to find out more. You can probably pick the game up on the cheap these days too.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (10) Latest comment 7 months ago

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  • darc #1 3 years ago

    "The developer, incidentally, will be Indian studio Trine, which has made some low profile PC games we've never heard of."

    For a game whose scope seems to have nearly overwhelmed the original devs, this does not bode well.

    "We've also yet to hear much about Gothic 4, other than the fact that Spellbound - and not series creator Piranha Bytes - will be the developer."

    Nor does this...

    "This will also be the first time the series will appear on consoles (360, PS3) as well as on PC."

    Hoo boy.

  • Waldo #2 3 years ago

    Ancaria, huh? Maybe they can have a crossover where you meet characters from Sacred on your journey. ;)

  • Windsong #3 3 years ago

    An epic plate full of fail. An INDIAN studio than made low profile (i.e. Valusoft/Wal-Mart) games??

    The End, folks.

  • UncleLou #4 3 years ago

    Yeah, makes a lot more sense to look forward to what Piranha Bytes next comes up with. After Gothic 1 and Gothic 2 and the expansion, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt despite the less than stellar G3.

  • Bru-Man #5 3 years ago

    Yup - £3.99 in GameStation a couple of weeks ago. Just got to finish Fallout 3 first. And The Witcher. And...

  • Xerx3s #6 3 years ago

    YEAH! Streets of MUMBAI! Oh.. er... right, carry on.

  • PearOfAnguish #7 3 years ago

    I had a play about with a very early prototype of the Gothic 4 engine. They've got the look and feel of the previous games down exactly, and the devs seem to understand why it has such a following, so I'm quietly optimistic about that one.

    But G3 expansion outsourced to a small unknown studio? Not good.

  • Nameless-001 #8 3 years ago

    After the shameful release of G3, a agme that did not deserve even a "beta stage" classification, bought at full price at its 1st day of release, you can be fucking sure I'll not buy any expansions, or G4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8 and so on.

  • mkreku #9 3 years ago

    The sad thing is.. I will :(

    Gothic has me wrapped around it's buggy little finger and I'll buy anything with that name on it. But I only have high hopes for Risen, Piranha Bytes next project.

  • ghw.lawyer #10 7 months ago

    The third game in the series was almost universally panned due to it’s low-grade development by a little-known PC developer from India (Trine) (unhelped by the game’s prevalent bugs and glitches), instead of the original developer of the franchise, Piranha Bytes. Gauthier, Houghtaling and Williams