Piranha Games

Piranha Games is a developer and publisher.

Piranha Games Webpage, Facebook

A Canadian development studio located in Vancouver. The company has been around since 2000, developing games for both PC and consoles.

History

Although Piranha Games was officially founded in January 2000, the team - led by Russ Bullock and Bryan Ekman - had actually started working together in the winter of 1999. At the time, the team - including Jason Holtslander - was working on a Half-Life mod titled Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza. At one point, Fox Interactive—the company that owned the franchise rights - took notice of the project and issued a cease-and-desist order.

From Die Hard…

Things took an unexpected turn when the team countered with a proposal to collaborate instead. As a result, a full-fledged development studio was officially established in January, and by August 2000, Bullock and Ekman’s company got the green light to develop an official adaptation of the movie Die Hard. Over the next few months, the team grew and moved into a new office in Vancouver. The development of Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza was tough - Jason Holtslander left the studio in 2001, and the remaining team had to work intense hours to meet the deadline.

The first-person shooter launched on PC in Spring 2002, but both players and critics gave it a lukewarm reception. The developers, however, didn’t give up. They kept the studio afloat by launching the Jarhead Games brand for casual titles and partnering with major companies.

…through commissioned work…

Piranha Games developed three titles for Electronic Arts: EA Playground for the Nintendo DS, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 for the PSP, and Need for Speed: Undercover, also for the PSP. In addition, the studio helped Gearbox Software with the console versions of Duke Nukem Forever and its multiplayer mode, and co-developed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

In addition, Piranha Games released Bass Pro Shops: The Strike in 2009 for Xbox 360, Wii, and PC, and followed it in 2011 with the racing game Days of Thunder, based on the movie Lightning Fast.

…until the era of MechWarrior

In 2011, the team secured the rights to the MechWarrior franchise, and fans didn’t have to wait long to see the results. In 2012, MechWarrior Online entered closed beta testing, followed by an open beta in 2013, and officially launched in 2015. Although the game didn’t immediately win over longtime fans, Piranha Games kept working hard to improve and expand the game.

In December 2016, MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was announced, this time focusing on a single-player experience. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, the game was set to launch on PC almost four years later, in September 2019.

In the end, the game launched on PC slightly later, in December 2019, and made its way to consoles in 2021. MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries received a moderately positive reception from industry media, earning an average Metacritic score of 71–74/100. Gamers, however, were much more enthusiastic. On Steam - where it launched after a year-long Epic Games Store exclusivity - the title received "very positive" reviews.

Piranha Games didn’t sit still - they continued working on their own projects while also gearing up for another game set in the BattleTech universe. In September 2023, MechWarrior 5: Clans was announced as the next entry in the series, this time focusing on a linear story-driven campaign. The game was scheduled to launch on PC and consoles in October 2024.

MechWarrior 5: Clans earned "mostly positive" reviews on Steam. The game also received strong reviews from industry outlets, with Metacritic scores averaging between 75 and 78/100, depending on the platform. Despite the positive reviews, the game struggled to achieve strong sales. According to Enad Global 7, “the game failed to reach new audiences and expand its target base as expected.” As a result, the studio reportedly carried out two rounds of layoffs, though the exact scale wasn’t revealed.