Take-Two “jumped” on the alternative to purchase Gearbox when the chance to take action on “cheap” phrases arose earlier this 12 months, stated CEO Strauss Zelnick throughout an buyers name at this time.
“We’ve got all of the respect on this planet for Randy Pitchford and his staff,” stated Zelnick. “He has the power to convey triple-A merchandise to market responsibly and on a really dependable and quite fast cadence. And he is a success maker. It’s totally laborious to make a brand new hit, and Tiny Tina was a brand new hit.”
Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands outperformed expectations, Take-Two stated in 2022.
Take-Two has been publishing Gearbox’s Borderlands video games because the first one in 2009, however didn’t personal the studio till very not too long ago. In 2021, Gearbox was acquired by Swedish holding firm Embracer Group for $1.3 billion. Now shrinking and restructuring, Embracer bought Gearbox to Take-Two for $460 million earlier this 12 months—the “cheap” phrases Zelnick was proud of.
“We have already recognized many potential development alternatives for the Borderlands sequence and Gearbox’s catalog, which we plan to pursue as soon as the studio is built-in into our group,” Zelnick stated early in at this time’s name.
Gearbox was already working behind-the-scenes on what’s subsequent for Borderlands—there’s been hypothesis at this time that Borderlands 4 might be revealed this June because of a Summer Game Fest tease—however Zelnick’s remark makes it sound like new Borderlands tasks could also be greenlit because of Take-Two’s acquisition.
Concurrently it is rising with the acquisition of Gearbox, Take-Two is shrinking elsewhere: the corporate not too long ago introduced that it is shedding about 5% of its workforce. It has been reported that two studios will shut because of the cuts, however now Zelnick says that they aren’t closing, though the scenario stays unclear.
