Risen announced for Xbox 360. It's like, an RPG n' stuff

5:19 PM on 12.10.2008   |   Jim Sterling

15 comments

Piranha Bytes, a developer best known for its Gothic series of RPGs, has announced a brand new roleplayer for the Xbox 360 which is due to hit next year. Known as Risen, this medieval RPG was originally slated for the PC, and is going to be published by Deep Silver, the company responsible for putting Cursed Mountain on the Wii.

Risen is targeted at mature players, and is set on a volcanic Mediterranean island. It promises the usual things we've come to hear from RPG developers -- multiple paths influenced by the user's own decisions and intuitive controls, all that stuff. Piranha Bytes also claims that the world will be fully streamed, meaning no long load times. We'll see what that does for the overall visual quality. If the framerate can remain solid throughout that, I'll be impressed.

Only a tiny handful of screens have been shown so far, but as someone who is always on the lookout for a good Western RPG, this is relevant to my interests. You may now feel free to say the game will suck because it isn't coming out on PC anymore and PC games are the future.

Risen Arises: Epic Role Playing Experience on Xbox 360® in 2009

Deep Silver and Piranha Bytes Reveal New Action Role Playing Epic

Hermosa Beach, Calif.—Deep Silver Inc., a publisher of interactive entertainment software and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Koch Media, and Piranha Bytes today officially announced Risen for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC. The game, which is targeted at a mature audience, is expected to ship in 2009.

The epic role playing game is set in a medieval world on a volcanic Mediterranean island, The Risen story unfolds over four chapters and will offer multiple ways to develop the story by his own actions and decisions. An innovative and intuitive user control interface will support both casual and hardcore gamers. With full world streaming support, the player experiences no tedious loading of areas while playing in a fully simulated game world with authentic characters. 

"Piranha Bytes has a track record of making incredible, in-depth games set in huge, detailed worlds, and Risen will be a great experience," said Cathy Tische, vice president of sales and marketing for Deep Silver. "The game already exhibits the quality and creativity that has made Piranha Bytes such a respected developer." 

Forthcoming titles from Deep Silver include Secret Files: Tunguska and Professor Heinz Wolff’s Gravity for Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ systems, The Humans for Wii, Nintendo DS, and Windows PC, Pet Vet: Down Under for Nintendo DS, Cursed Mountain for Wii, Ride to Hell for Xbox 360, PC and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and the Duke Nukem Trilogy™ for Nintendo DS and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system.