Rumor: Embracer Finalizing Sale Of Gearbox
A new rumor has emerged that Embracer is close to selling Gearbox Software.
As reported by Kotaku, Randy Pitchford recently told Gearbox employees in a townhall meeting that the company had already decided their future, and that they would be making an announcement next month. Kotaku’s sources claim that the announcement will be a sale, for Gearbox to leave Embracer.
Embracer originally bought Gearbox in 2021 for $ 1.3 billion, as the most high profile studio in their years long acquisition spree. That came shortly after the release of Borderlands 3, and within that time, the company released Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, New Tales From The Borderlands, and published several games under them, including Remnant II, Homeworld 3, and Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm.
Gearbox was also incorporated into Embracer’s corporate structure, who split them into four divisions. Gearbox Software is the division that still makes the games, Gearbox Studios handles media productions like the upcoming Borderlands movie, Gearbox Properties is dedicated to managing their IPs, and Gearbox Publishing is the dedicated publisher arm.
Under Embracer, Gearbox also added several other studios and publishers into their fold, managed by a fifth division called the Gearbox Entertainment Company. This included Cryptic Studios, and Perfect World, which was rebranded to Gearbox Publishing San Francisco.
Before the acquisition, however, Gearbox was a huge company as it is. They have four studios dedicated to making video games, in Texas, Montreal, Quebec, and Shanghai. They were also already publishing and producing games with other studios, like Homeworld 3 with Blackbird Interactive.
Kotaku’s sources claims that Gearbox had been privately under turmoil, while other studios announced layoffs and closures. While the company initially claimed they would avoid layoffs as much as possible, they would eventually do some targeted layoffs. This seems to have not been at the same scale as other companies as
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