After a financially tumultuous year, it looks like Embracer Group is preparing to sell Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment. Rumors of a potential sale first emerged late last year, and according to a new report, a deal is currently being finalized.

Borderlands boss Randy Pitchford responds to Gearbox sale report

An update on Gearbox’s status was provided by Kotaku. The website’s sources claim that studio CEO Randy Pitchford held a town hall earlier this week, during which he said that a decision was made regarding Gearbox’s future. Kotaku claims to have heard that a sale is currently being finalized. However, it’s not known at present who the buyer is.

In response to Kotaku’s request for comment, Pitchford released somewhat of an odd statement, expressing his delight over his company being the subject of rumors and speculations. “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,” he said. “I’m honored and humbled that our company is a topic of rumor, speculation, and discussion.”

Pitchford added Gearbox will be “thrilled” to reveal what’s next when it has some news to share.

Elsewhere, Embracer Group is also selling Saber Interactive.

The post Borderlands Dev Gearbox Being Sold by Embracer – Report appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

According to a new report by Reuters, Embracer Group is considering selling Borderlands company Gearbox Entertainment. Gearbox Entertainment — which encompasses developer Gearbox Software and publishing arm Gearbox Publishing — was acquired by Embracer in April 2021.

Embracer “exploring options” for Borderlands maker Gearbox

According to Reuters’ sources, Embracer Group — which has been undergoing financial troubles after a major deal fell apart — is considering its options for Gearbox. One option on the table is selling the company entirely. Apparently, potential buyers have already been sent marketing materials for Gearbox.

Reuters wasn’t able to reveal a list of buyers, but its sources say that they’re mainly “international gaming groups.” We won’t be surprised if Tencent is among them.

The report claims that a deal may not end up happening, but Embracer has enlisted the help of Goldman Sachs and Aream & Co. to find a buyer. Neither Embracer, Goldman Sachs, nor Aream & Co. have responded to requests for comment.

The writing has been on the wall for some time. Embracer went on an unprecedented shopping spree within the games industry and acquired a large number of companies and IPs. The group hit financial turmoil this year and has been undergoing restructuring for a number of months.

The post Report: Gearbox Entertainment Might Be Sold by Embracer Group appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Gearbox Publishing is the latest company that has undergone layoffs following parent company Embracer Group‘s restructuring. Established in 2015, Gearbox Publishing is the publishing arm of the Borderlands studio.

Gearbox Publishing most recently released Remnant 2

Gearbox Entertainment was acquired by Embracer Group in a $1.3 billion deal back in 2021. Most recently, the company published Gunfire Games’ acclaimed shooter RPG Remnant 2. Gearbox Publishing is also behind PS5 exclusive Godfall (Counterplay Games) and People Can Fly’s Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition.

GameDeveloper spotted LinkedIn posts from former employees confirming the layoffs. According to localization specialist Allan Jacquemart, no one saw the layoffs coming and he was one of many who started working at the company as recently as June, only to be laid off at the end of the probation period. “We were simply victims of the [Embracer] group’s restructuring,” Jacquemart wrote.

Embracer has been shedding its properties as fast as it acquired them. Just yesterday, it announced the immediate closure of Saints Row and Red Faction developer Volition, which had been in operation for 30 years. The group has been canceling projects and undergoing restructuring since June.

For now, Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics has been marked safe from the cuts.

The post Godfall, Remnant 2 Publisher Gearbox Hit by Layoffs appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The Saints Row developer, Volition, has been moved from Deep Silver to Gearbox Entertainment following the game’s poor reception. The aim of the internal transfer, the first for parent company Embracer Group, is to use the expertise of Gearbox to “create future success at Volition” both with Saints Row and future games.

Saints Row will be moved to Gearbox

Moving forward, the Saints Row developer will be moved from its current role as a Deep Silver studio to a new role within Gearbox Entertainment’s group. This is because Gearbox “has all the tools, including an experienced management team in the US, to create future success at Volition.” This will include future DLC, such as that included within the game’s Expansion Pass, as well as future games from the studio.

Saints Row was released in August to a polarizing reception, something with which Embracer’s CEO Lars Wingefors was not happy. Volition has since been “working hard to improve the player experience” with updates and free DLC, including the Bright Future update that included more than 200 bug fixes and gameplay improvements like PS5 Haptic Feedback. Despite this, the game has not met “the full expectations” of the management team, Embracer said in their latest earnings report.

The post Saints Row Dev Moved to Gearbox Following Game’s Poor Reception appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Gearbox Entertainment, the developer of the Borderlands franchise, has revealed that parent company Embracer Group has rebranded Eidos Shanghai as Gearbox Studio Shanghai. Embracer purchased Eidos studios in Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Shanghai from Square Enix in May this year. It has repositioned Eidos Shanghai in what looks to be a supportive role for Gearbox Entertainment moving forward.

Gearbox’s expansion into Asia is important for “long-term growth”

As noted in a press release, this news marks Gearbox’s first expansion into Asia, which the company believes is “an important market in the company’s long-term growth strategy.” Created in 2008, Eidos Shanghai has previously worked on other triple-A games from Square Enix, such as Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

So their expertise certainly looks like it will be useful for the next game in the Borderlands (or Tiny Tina’s) franchise or if the developer chooses to expand its reach into Asian markets. Or perhaps, a mobile Borderlands game is in the works?

Gigi Ning, the general manager for Eidos Shanghai, will continue to serve in the role, but report to Gearbox Publishing (previously Perfect World Entertainment) based in San Francisco.

Earlier in November, Embracer Group confirmed that Square Enix Montreal, which was rebranded to Onoma just three weeks ago, had been closed down. It also acquired eight other studios including Middle-earth Enterprises back in August.

The post Embracer Rebrands Eidos Shanghai into Gearbox Studio to Support Borderlands Dev appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

For some reason, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has decided to sell his “loud” (read: ugly) shirts for “charity.” This one came out of nowhere and attracted quite a lot of negative responses, prompting Gearbox’s official Twitter account to hide replies. It’s unclear what charity the proceeds are going to since the announcement only mentions “developer scholarships.”

Gearbox CEO might be raising funds for company’s own scholarship program

Gearbox fans may have noticed the loud shirts worn by our head honcho over the years.

Now these shirts can be yours! Randy is auctioning off dozens of garments with all proceeds funding a developer scholarship.

Blind bidding runs until Sept. 9!

https://t.co/CP1tsDoRhB pic.twitter.com/dKnZS7iROJ

— GearboxOfficial (@GearboxOfficial) September 2, 2022

Neither the tweet nor the auction site mentions the name of the charity. Folks over at GamesRadar went digging around a little bit and found that Gearbox has its own scholarship program and the proceeds might be going towards that. There are three types of scholarship awards handed out by the company, two of which are valued at up to $500 and one is valued at $1,500. “Our mission is to produce cutting-edge and rigorous steam education resources, programs, and experiences for schools, home schools, out-of-school programs, and self-motivated learners,” reads an official description.

Randy Pitchford’s shirts certainly are “loud,” but quite a few folks are taken aback by the auction. I mean, does anyone really want to wear his used shirts? Well, a few people do because there are a few bids on each lot of shirts, with the highest being five bids. Each lot is valued at $400, and there are 47 lots in total. That’s a lot of loud shirts, there…

In other news, it looks like the Tokyo Game Show 2022 announcement Konami was teasing is for a Suikoden game rather than Silent Hill, and Cyberpunk 2077 is set to receive new content.

The post Gearbox Boss Wants You to Buy His Ugly Shirts for ‘Charity’ appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Embracer Group is continuing to expand its ever-growing entertainment empire by unveiling another five studio acquisitions today, including Neverwinter and Star Trek Online developer Perfect World Entertainment and support studio Shiver Entertainment.

Gearbox Entertainment will be the operative group in charge of Perfect World Entertainment. The acquisition totalled $125 million, divided between cash and Embracer shares. Perfect World Entertainment also includes PWE Publishing and Cryptic Studios, both of which will be onboarded into Gearbox although they will operate independently. PWE Publishing is expected to strengthen Gearbox’s publishing division, while they expect Cryptic’s three long-running MMOs (Neverwinter, Star Trek Online and Champions Online) to continue to do well.

Meanwhile, Shiver Entertainment is one of two studios added to the Saber Interactive operative group. The studio is run by EA veterans John Schappert and Jason Andersen and specialises in supporting development and porting games to other platforms. However, they currently have projects of their own in development. The second studio is DIGIC, an animation studio based in Hungary. Their strengths lie in “commercial trailers and cinematics for best-selling game titles as well as animations for streaming media”. The latter studio will also help with projects in progress in other operative groups, namely Gearbox, THQ Nordic, Coffee Stain and Koch Media. None of the financial details for either of these acquisitions was made available.

Koch Media is the operative group that now has control over the fourth studio acquisition, Spotfilm Networx. This studio is the leading Advertising-based Video on Demand company in Germany and also has two Subscription Video on Demand channels. Both parties agreed not to disclose the financial details of this acquisition.

Finally, Embracer has also acquired Dark Horse Media, which will found an operative group all of its own. Dark Horse controls 300 IPs, including The Mask, Time Cop, Father’s Day, and Ghost. Embracer is hoping that some of the movie, TV and comic book IPs can be converted into video games for PC, console, VR and mobile. The financial details of this transaction were not disclosed due to commercial reasons.

[Source: Embracer (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)]

The post Embracer Group’s Latest Batch of Acquisitions Include Perfect World Entertainment and Shiver Entertainment appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Gearbox is undergoing a bit of restructuring as the company starts to focus on more transmedia (movies, TV shows etc.) opportunities. Co-founder Randy Pitchford is stepping away from his role as President of its software division in order to focus on its new film and television branch Gearbox Studios. Pitchford is still going to be active at Gearbox as a whole, remaining CEO and President of Gearbox Entertainment—the umbrella under which all other Gearbox divisions report to. Former chief technology officer Steve Jones will now serve as President of Gearbox Software.

The structure now sees Gearbox Entertainment at the top (headed by Randy Pitchford), under which Gearbox Publishing, Gearbox Software, and Gearbox Studios (headed by Steve Gibson, Steve Jones, and Pitchford, respectively) are nested.

Congratulations to Steve Jones, who I have recently promoted to become President of Software at The Gearbox Entertainment Company. Attached is a diagram of the high level organization chart along with excerpts from my internal staff letter announcing the promotion. pic.twitter.com/4FeX94SIW2

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) October 6, 2021

Pitchford has been somewhat of a controversial figure when it comes to anything Gearbox, particularly when it comes to the Borderlands franchise. He has worked at Gearbox Software for over two decades, during which he was accused of embezzling 12 million dollars intended to be a bonus for the Borderlands development team (the suit was dismissed), assault towards Claptrap voice actor David Eddings, and lying about voice actor departures. He also thinks failed hero-shooter Battleborn “spearheaded the genre,” whatever that means. There’s also of course the now infamous Medieval Times/USB drive incident.

These Gearbox Entertainment leadership shuffles are primarily in order to focus on media projects in addition to AAA video games. In his announcement tweet, Pitchford explains that he will “continue wearing a creative hat with several creative touchpoints around the company.” Gearbox Entertainment doesn’t have an official Chief Creative Officer to avoid homogenizing their projects. He adds that “nothing will change” for those already working under him, but that his duty is “to be accountable and responsible for high level creative and business strategy.” Put simply, Pitchford will be focusing more on handling the business side of the company but will still be around to give creative input, which largely clocks with his overall role at Gearbox thus far.

Notably, Pitchford will be focusing on building up the business side and transmedia efforts of the new Gearbox Studios division, which is currently working on a live-action movie adaptation of Borderlands. With the recent acquisition by Embracer Group, Pitchford states that Gearbox Entertainment is “just getting started.” In addition to the “explosive transmedia business” at Gearbox Studios, Pitchford teases that there are multiple triple-A titles in development at Gearbox Software and “many more” in its greenlight pipeline.

The post Steve Jones is Now Gearbox Software President, Randy Pitchford Focusing on Growing Gearbox Studios appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.