Late on Wednesday night, Take-Two Interactive announced it plans to acquire Gearbox Entertainment from Embracer Group for $460 million in Take Two stock. However, Embracer Group has revealed today that it will be keeping a number of studios and the rights to many games that were previously under Gearbox"s supervision.
In a press release, Embracer says it will keep what is currently known as Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, but it will get a name change in the near future. As a result, Embracer will also retain the publishing rights to the popular Remnant game franchise, which Gearbox published for its developer Gunfire Games. It will also continue to have the publishing rights to the upcoming game Hyper Light Breaker from developer Heart Machine, along with what Embracer says will be "other notable unannounced game releases."
Embracer will also retain Cryptic Studios, the developer that continues to update MMO games like Neverwinter Online and Star Trek Online. The support developer Lost Boys Interactive and the 3D scanning company Captured Dimensions will also remain under Embracer. The deal between Embracer and Take-Two is expected to close before June 30, 2024.
Embracer also announced today the official closing of the previously announced deal to sell off a number of development teams and games, formerly under Saber Interactive, to a new company, Beacon Interactive, that"s run by Saber"s former co-founder Matthew Karch. Beacon Interactive paid $247 million for its list of games and studios, while Embracer kept access to some of Saber"s studios and titles.
Hopefully, the sale of some of Gearbox"s IP and studios to Take-Two is the end of the long restructuring period for Embracer, which began in June 2023 after a planned investment deal did not go through at the last minute. Since then, Embracer has been cutting jobs and shutting down complete studios in an attempt to cut costs.