Rumor: Embracer Close to Selling off Borderlands Studio Gearbox - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 March 2024 / 3,670 Views
Embracer Group acquired Borderlands developer, The Gearbox Entertainment Company, in early 2021 in a deal worth up to $1.3 billion. Following a report that Embracer is selling Saber Interactive to private investors in a deal that is worth up to $500 million, it appears Gearbox might be the next company under Embracer to be sold off.
Gearbox CEO and co-founder Randy Pitchford told employees in a meeting earlier this week that a decision has been made regarding the future of the studio, according to sources who spoke with Kotaku.
Pitchford previously told employees at Gearbox there were three options: stay with Embracer, sell to someone else, or finance a buyout and become independent again. The sources state Gearbox has decided to sell and "a deal is in the late stages of being finalized."
"I’m 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," Pitchford told Kotaku in a statement. "I’m honored and humbled that our company is a topic of rumor, speculation, and discussion. As always, we will be thrilled to share whenever we have projects to announce or news to share as we work hard towards our mission to entertain the world."
Embracer has been struggling ever since a $2 billion partnership with a gaming group backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund fell through. The company has cancelled 29 unannounced games from July to December 2023 and has laid off around 1,400 employees as part of an ongoing restructure.
As of December, Embracer had 132 video game studios, down from 139 in June. It is also working with 50 external studios, which is down from 59. Of the around 1,400 employees laid off this includes 871 internal game developers, 252 internal non-developers, and 264 external developers.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who first reported on Embracer selling Saber, was asked if Gearbox was the next studio to be sold off and he told them to "stay tuned." This is possibly hinting what the sources told Kotaku are accurate.
Stay tuned
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 29, 2024
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Man things just keeping going crazy out there in the gaming space!
Totally agree and hope they are no layoffs from what ever optiosn they choose.
Hot potato hot potato the selling and buying is hot right now
This is probably a very unpopular opinion... But I am honestly hoping they get bought by Microsoft, I feel their identity more aligns with the Xbox demographic and goals.
Plus they have struggled for resources to really carry their talent forwards... And with the Borderlands movie dropping this year, would be a perfect time to capitalize on it and branch out into other forms of media.
As long as it's not EA, Ubisoft or Tencent I will generally be happy.
Would be super interesting if it ended up being Nintendo... They would finally have a mature western FPS/RPG developer.
Even after they were bought by Embracer, their games were published by 2K/Take-Two rather than Embracer or Gearbox.
I would be surprised if anyone felt Gearbox was worth buying without their major IP. I did a quick search and Sony bought Insomniac for a relatively low amount because they didn't really come with any IPs. And that studio had more potential to make hits.
So $500 million without Borderlands? I doubt it. Last, the Borderlands movie looks like garbage.
I was thinking the same for two reasons. Borderlands is a series that would be good for GamePass. Also, they could make a good Halo game.
...Wonder if they'll be bought by anyone we know.
It won't happen, but I'd love to see the Internet react to Nintendo buying them if just because it would be a trash fire to witness. They would probably turn it down if offered though.
Nintendo has no interest in 3rd party studios
