Rumours circulating last year that Borderlands creator Gearbox Studios is to be sold appear to have sprouted fruit. This would mark its exit from the shadow of the proverbial colossus Embracer Group, which has been having an, ah, interesting year and a bit to say the least.
The group, which gathered an unsavoury reputation for hoovering up studios after a spending spree in 2022, has been scrambling to recover for the better part of a year after a $2 billion deal fell through the floorboards, punched its way through several stories, hit the metaphorical boiler in the basement, and set the whole thing on fire.
This came with a human cost—roughly 5% of its workforce. Then Timesplitters creator Free Radical Design and Deus Ex studio Eidos Montreal, leaving a potential sequel dead in the water. Saints Row Studio Volition was also closed entirely. Other studios impacted include 3D Realms, and Slipgate Ironworks, Cryptic Studios, Zen Studios, and New World Interactive. Even studios who haven't been touched yet are sounding the alarm bells, with Piranha Bytes—developers of Gothic, Risen, and Elex—stating that it was "in a difficult situation" last month.
The "restructuring" to the tune of 1,600 employees has been all about "maximising shareholder value", which has led to less-than-subtle digs across the industry, as Embracer Group continues its mission to say the quiet part a little too loudly for anyone's comfort.
According to sources that spoke with Kotaku, however, a town hall with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford was held last week in which Pitchford announced that "a decision had been made regarding the studio’s future, with more information to be shared next month." The report then states: "Kotaku understands that the decision was made to sell, and a deal is in the late stages of being finalised."
This would follow reported plans to sell Saber Interactive, as reported by Bloomberg yesterday. Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors' statement in that infamously-worded financial report would at least track with Kotaku's reports that sales are in their late stages, as he noted: "Embracer still has a few larger structured divestment processes ongoing … Processes are in mature stages."
Pitchford himself didn't have much to say about the matter to Kotaku, other than the fact he was "delighted that what we might be up to is interesting enough to people that you want to make a story about us for your readers".
While it's a relief to see Gearbox's developers scrambling out from under a house of cards mid-collapse, that's not to say it hasn't been clipped on the way. Lost Boys Interactive, a Gearbox Software-owned "independent subsidiary", was hit by layoffs just over a month and a half ago.
