New Gearbox franchise coming before April 2022, according to 2K Games

Borderlands developer Gearbox is working on a new franchise with 2K games which will be introduced this fiscal year.

This information comes from Take-Two Interactive’s quarterly earnings report which was released yesterday. Take-Two didn’t give any other details on this title, other than to describe it as one of their “core releases”. This is something of a surprise given that Gearbox is now owned by a rival publisher, Embracer group.

Embracer purchased Gearbox for $1.3 billion back in February 2021, bringing the veteran developer into the fold alongside its array of studios and publishers including THQ Nordic and Koch Media/Deep Silver. 

At the time, 2K Games released a statement clarifying that “The merger does not change 2K’s relationship with Gearbox nor our role as the publisher for the Borderlands IP or any other projects we are currently working on with the studio.”

The statement does mention other projects so it seems likely that this title was already far into development when the purchase was finalized. Whatever this game is, it will almost certainly be the last new IP that Gearbox works on with 2K Games, as we’d imagine Embracer is keen to start earning back some of that $1.3 billion.

It’s going to be a busy year for Take-Two, which is the parent company of both 2K Games and GTA developer Rockstar games. It was announced during the earnings report that it has 21 games planned for release during the fiscal year 2022. That includes four “immersive core releases”, of which two will be new franchises. One of these is the new Gearbox franchise and the other is as yet unknown.

Alongside this, Gearbox is also planning to release one new independent title through its Private Division indie publishing arm, which will be OlliOlli World. Take-Two also has ten free-to-play mobile games on the way, with six from new franchises and four from existing Take-Two IP. There are also six “new iterations” of previous releases coming, including the recently announced PS5 and Xbox Series X version of GTA V.

E3 2021 is just around the corner and that seems the likely place for Gearbox and 2K to unveil this latest collaboration, so stick check out our E3 2021 schedule to keep up to date on all the big announcements.