Borderlands 4 developer acquired by Take-Two from splintered Embracer Group

The struggling mega-publisher Embracer Group has sold off Borderlands studio Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive. Acquired by the latter for $460, the latest games industry acquisition includes the rights to popular games such as Duke Nukem, Borderlands, Brothers in Arms and more.

Alongside the acquisition, Gearbox confirmed that Borderlands 4 is in active development following 2022’s Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. No release date for the upcoming FPS RPG game was confirmed in the announcement.

Take-Two will acquire three Gearbox studios located in Texas, Montreal and Quebec. Embracer Group will keep a hold of a few minor assets such as the MMO studio Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, Captured Dimensions and Gearbox Publishing San Francisco.

The Borderlands studio previously held a strong relationship with 2K prior to its acquisition by Embracer Group in 2021 for $363 million. However, rumors of Embracer selling the company have been circulating for the past year as the publisher lost a major investment in May, 2023

“Joining forces with Take-Two Interactive/2K will help Gearbox ascend to our next level," said Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford in a statement released to the press. "Take-Two and 2K have demonstrated repeatedly their commitment to our engine of generating creativity, happiness and profit.”

"We set the bar for interactive entertainment and achieved remarkable results with record-setting games when we worked together at arm's length as partners [2K published previous Borderlands games]. I'm incredibly excited about what we can accomplish now that we're fully aligned as one."

As for Embracer Group, the mega-publisher still has huge projects in the works. For example, the Knights of the Old Republic remake is currently in the works at Saber Interactive, and multiple Lord of the Rings projects have been signed off at the publisher.

There’s currently no release date planned for Borderlands 4. There is also nothing official planned for future use of acquired IP such as Duke Nukem, Brothers in Arms and more.