Embracers sells ‘Borderlands’ studio to Take-Two with new game in development

Embracer Group has sold Borderlands developers Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive for £365million.

Take-Two has already published several Borderlands titles via 2K Games and the studio previously teamed up with Gearbox to work on a Borderlands film.

The sale will see Take-Two take full control of the Borderlands franchise, as well Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem. Embracer has retained publishing rights on a handful of unannounced games.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said the acquisition of Gearbox would “strengthen our industry-leading creative talent and portfolio of owned intellectual property” and “unlock the opportunity for us to drive increased long-term growth by leveraging the full resources of Take-Two across all of Gearbox’s exciting initiatives.”

We’re incredibly proud to announce we’re joining the Take-Two Interactive/@2K family. pic.twitter.com/ot1gJK4TUp

— GearboxOfficial (@GearboxOfficial) March 28, 2024

“We are thrilled to welcome Randy Pitchford and his team of passionate, talented developers to 2K and we look forward to releasing numerous projects in the future as colleagues. We have loved partnering with Gearbox on every iteration of the Borderlands franchise,” continued Zelnick before confirming a new Borderlands title is in “active development”.

The press release confirmed Gearbox are working on an additional four titles, including another instalment in the Homeworld franchise, and “at least one exciting new intellectual property.”

However, Gearbox Publishing was not mentioned in the official announcement and hours later,  client relationship manager Mallie Rust confirmed she had been laid off alongside a majority of her team.

“To say I’m devastated is an understatement. It’s hard to lose both a job and team that I loved so much,” she wrote on social media.

Got the news today that Gearbox Publishing is not included in the deal with Take 2. I’m laid off, along with the majority of our teams.

To say I’m devastated is an understatement. It’s hard to lose both a job and team that I loved so much.

— Mallie Rust (@malliefe2o3) March 28, 2024

In June 2023, Embracer confirmed it would be “restructuring” the company, which led to a number of lay-offs, game cancellations and studio closures. 

Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors blamed the decision on “the worsening economy and market reality,” with the company focusing on cost-saving and “optimisation”.

The recently revived Free Radical Design was one of the first casualties, with their TimeSplitters project abruptly scrapped after years of work. One of the original co-creators of the franchise said he was “done” with the series after the experience. “It was a big letdown.”

In other news, CD Projekt Red has given an update on the numerous projects it is working on, with 403 devs currently building The Witcher 4.