Since Germany is the Gothic series' land of birth, it was natural for this year's GC to once again bring some sort of news about it. If you remember from back in spring, the relationship between JoWooD and the series' original creators from Piranha Bytes fell apart, with the latter losing the right to develop the next chapter, Gothic 4 (story). Even though, as they claim, "Gothic" remains a registered trademark of Pluto 13 / Piranha Bytes (story).

Well, now JoWooD announces that the studio who will take over the grim task of making the Gothic 4 sequel is Spellbound Entertainment. Their most recent project was Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge, and currently they are also working on an enhanced, expanded and delayed version, called Helldorado (previously Desperados 2: Conspiracy).

JoWooD's communique contains nothing specific about Gothic 4, unfortunately, simply listing some completely irrelevant marketing blah-blah, which supposedly led them to choosing Spellbound. We don't expect to see any images from the game, either, for quite a while, and the first estimate release date will only be announced in a few weeks from now. Along with the traditional PC, Gothic 4 is also set to launch on "current gen consoles", yet to be specified.

Meanwhile, the folks from Piranha Bytes are hard at work on a new game (role-playing, I assume), together with their new main partner, Deep Silver (story).

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)