This year, THQ Nordic plans to establish a brand-new studio based in Barcelona, Spain. The team’s first project will be an ambitious one–developing a Gothic remake for PC and next-gen consoles. Gothic’s return is happening due to overwhelming support THQ Nordic received after launching a playable teaser for the remake. A whopping 94.8 percent of the players surveyed following the teaser’s release say they want the publisher to pursue the RPG’s full recreation.
Since its December 2019 launch on Steam, more than 180,000 players have explored Gothic’s playable teaser. Of those many participants, 43,000 took a survey, the vast majority voting in favor of a remake. For the sake of transparency, THQ Nordic shared the survey’s results. The publisher and the studio in Spain aim to take feedback from the playable teaser to heart, too. Most notably, THQ Nordic cited players’ desire for “a grittier and less colorful world,” compared to the teaser.
In a statement, the publisher’s Business and Product Development Director, Reinhard Pollice, promised a faithful recreation of the cult classic. “We are up for the challenge to develop a full Gothic Remake, which will stay as faithfully as possible to the original experience and transport the atmospheric world of Gothic into a high quality look and carefully modernizing certain gameplay mechanics,” he said.
Full production will begin at an as yet unspecified time. It comes as no surprise, then, that THQ Nordic isn’t committing to a 2020 release date. In fact, the company is also maintaining silence about the remake’s release window.
Developer Piranha Bytes, now owned by THQ Nordic, released the first Gothic in 2001. The medieval fantasy franchise’s sequel, Gothic II, hit stores in 2002 and 2003 in Germany and North America, respectively. Gothic 3 arrived in late 2006, followed by the release of an expansion and mobile title. The series didn’t land a PlayStation release until 2013’s Arcania: The Complete Tale on PS3. This version included Arcania: Gothic 4 and its Fall of Setarrif expansion.
[Source: THQ Nordic]
