Last month, Gearbox revealed that its future was still undecided under parent company Embracer Group after it began selling off studios in droves in an effort to keep itself afloat. Embracer purchased the Borderlands company for $1.3 billion back in 2021. Three years later, Gearbox Entertainment is now being sold off to 2K Games and Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive for $460 million.
As reported by PC Gamer, Embracer Group will sell Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive for a sum of $460 million – considerably less than what it was initially bought for. The deal is expected to be finalised by the end of June.
Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors confirmed the news in a statement:
“Today’s announcement marks the result of the final structured divestment process and is an important step in transforming Embracer into the future with notably lower net debt and improved free cash flow. Through the transaction, we lower business risk and improve profitability as we transition to becoming a leaner and more focused company.”
Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford also released a statement on the deal, stating:
“As a significant long-term Embracer Group shareholder, I believe in the strategy for the Embracer Group going forward and am completely convinced that this transaction is the best possible scenario and an obvious net positive arrangement for Embracer Group, for Take-Two and, of course, for Gearbox Entertainment. My primary interest is always Gearbox, especially our talent and our customers. I want to personally assure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best they can possibly be.”
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zenick revealed that Gearbox will fall under the 2K umbrella, which previously published all Borderlands games in the series since 2009. The $460 million buyout will give Take-Two other IPs including Duke Nukem, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms and Homeworld. However, Embracer Group will still retain Gearbox Publishing San Francisco which holds the rights to the Remnant series and Hyper Light Breaker, as well as “other notable unannounced game releases.”
Source: PC Gamer
