Gearbox set to be unshackled from Embracer Group

Embracer has quickly become one of the most controversial names in gaming, with the holding company spending the past few years buying up as many studios as they could. Unfortunately, due to a series of financial woes, the company has started to sell off many of its studios – with Borderlands developer Gearbox seemingly next in line.

As reported by Kotaku, three years after spending a cool billion on acquiring Gearbox Entertainment, Embracer looks set to let them go, with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford telling employees that the studio’s future has been decided.

What exactly this future will be is officially unknown, but according to prior statements from Pitchford, Gearbox will either remain with Embracer; be sold off to a different company; or go back to being independently run.

Back in September last year, we reported on claims that Gearbox was looking to be sold off to a 3rd party company. According to Kotaku, it seems as though this will ultimately be the path that Gearbox takes.

While Embracer has yet to comment on the matter, Pitchford himself addressed the rumours, saying to Kotaku “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. I’m honored and humbled that our company is a topic of rumor, speculation, and discussion. As always, we will be thrilled to share whenever we have projects to announce or news to share as we work hard towards our mission to entertain the world.”

The whole Embracer situation has been a bit of a mess across the board. While we have unfortunately already seen layoffs and closures as a result of Embracer’s poor financial planning, it is encouraging at the least to see some of the studios hopefully getting away from all this mostly unscathed.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of Embracer’s current situation? Did they dig their own grave? What other Embracer-owned studios would you like to see move away from the holding company? Let us know down below.

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