Players who got far enough into the Playable Teaser were presented with a survey asking their opinions, and THQ Nordic have now shared their results. They say that 94.8% of 43,111 responses wanted them to go ahead with the remake. They did also ask questions about specific parts as well as having an open field for other comments, which is where more criticism came in. THQ Nordic say they will “assess what players liked and what they want to be different than in the playable teaser. One of the most common mentions was for example the demand for a grittier and less colourful world.” A fair few folks weren’t best pleased with the Teaser’s controls, combat, or plot changes either. The publishers have made both the raw survey data and a presentation about it available to everyone who’s curious, so do get stuck in if that’s you. The Playable Teaser is no longer available on Steam (though you can still read more criticism of the prototype in player reviews there) but looked a little something like this:
“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,” said Reinhard Pollice, THQ Nordic business and product development director, in today’s announcement. The remake will be made by a new studio THQ Nordic are establishing in Barcelona. They first three Gothic games were made by Piranha Bytes, who then went on to make Risen. THQ Nordic do actually bought Piranha Bytes in 2019, in their ongoing mission to hoover up mid-size PC gaming studios of the nineties and noughties, but they probably have more important (and fresh) things to be working on. At that time, Piranha Bytes hinted they were working on a sequel to their 2017 post-apocalyptic RPG, Elex. No firm word on when the Gothic remake will be coming, but they say it won’t be in 2020 and will be on the next generation of consoles. Sin said in our 2016 retrospective that “Gothic stands out as yet another special game with too few descendants.” Well, this isn’t a descendant, but it might reintroduce the idea to a new generation.
