A few weeks ago, unconfirmed rumors claimed Embracer Group was close to selling off Gearbox Entertainment. Late on Wednesday, publisher Take Two Interactive confirmed it plans to acquire Gearbox for $460 million in an all-share deal. Take Two"s press release says that the deal will officially close during the company"s 2025 fiscal first quarter, which ends on June 30, 2024. By contrast, Embracer Group acquired Gearbox in 2021 for a whopping $1.4 billion.
Take Two is already the publisher for Gearbox"s hit Borderlands game franchise, which will soon become a major live-action motion picture in August 2024. Wednesday"s press release says Gearbox Entertainment currently has six upcoming games in the works at its various studios and also under its own publishing division. That includes May"s release of Homeworld 3, along with another unnamed game in the Borderlands franchise. Of the other four unnamed games, three are sequels, and the other is described as an "exciting new intellectual property."
When the deal closes, Gearbox will operate as a studio within Take Two"s 2K Studios division and will continue to be led by its co-founder Randy Pitchford.
This may finally be one of the last acts by Embracer Group to sell off or shut down its studios after a months-long restructuring that began in June 2023. Since then the group has shut down at least two large studios and cut jobs from a number of other development teams, along with canceling projects.
A couple of weeks ago, Embracer announced it was selling off most of its Saber Interactive studios to a newly formed company, Beacon Interactive, for $247 million. Embracer still owns a number of game studios, including Tripwire, Aspyr, Tuxedo Labs, and more. It has 14 upcoming games, including Tripwire"s zombie-themed shooter sequel Killing Floor 3. However, most of them are currently unannounced.