Games industry mega-corp Embracer Group is selling Borderlands development studio Gearbox Software. Just weeks after murdering Saints Row and Red Faction studio Volition, the publisher is selling off one of its biggest purchases.
Revealed in a report by Reuters, the Swedish games group is weighing up its options for selling the Borderlands studio following the death of Volition, cancelled projects and restructuring to limit its net debt.
Embracer Group purchase Gearbox Software back in 2021 for a massive $1.3 billion. Since then, the Texas-based Borderlands developer has released two games: Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and New Tales for the Borderlands. The studio has also published a few games such as Remnant II.
According to the report, Embracer has already prepared marketing materials prepared to sell Gearbox to potential owners. However, there are currently no concrete plans to sell the Borderlands developer to any one party meaning the sale may not end up occurring.
Embracer Group has spent the last few years buying up every potential studio and franchise it can, including the purchase of numerous western studios from Square Enix. At the time of writing, Embracer Group has ownership of 900 franchises, including the movie and games rights for J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Embracer’s lofty plans for Tolkien’s franchise includes numerous games, such as the horrendous Lord of the Rings: Gollum and movie prequels based on characters such as Gandalf. Whether these movies are still in the works following the group’s disasterous financials is unknown.
The Embracer Group’s recent move to cut costs comes after a huge deal fell through for the company. In May, a secret partner was supposed to grant the company $2 billion in development revenue for six years, but the partner pulled out in the deal’s final hours. Since then, the group has scrambled to cut costs every way it can.
Gearbox Software has been a huge part of Embracer’s video game presence over the past few years. Currently, it’s recently published game Remnant II is performing admirably, and the studio’s Borderlands series continues to bring in long-standing revenue.
We have reached out to Gearbox for comment.