“The plans are a spectrum of games developed in-house with Gearbox IP, games developed in-house with Gearbox’s original IP, external partners who are both publishing partners, where we are publishing in a second-party relationship, and then there are also other developers working on Gearbox IP too, “he said.
“This can expand, especially as we start to interact without friction with other members of the Embracer Group who have some interest. There are many people who would love to work on Gearbox IP, and Gearbox would love to help some of the Embracer Group games that can be more strong in other markets will be published more effectively in North America. “
Other Embracer Group studios include THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, Koch Media, DECA Games, Amplifier Game Invest and Coffee Stain Holding, as well as Aspyr Media and Easybrain – which it acquired today with Gearbox. With these companies, Embracer has access to properties such as World War Z, NBA Playgrounds, Dead Island, Metro Exodus and Shadow Warrior.
Along with the possibilities of Gearbox’s existing properties, Pitchford said in another part of the interview that he believes that financial support from the Embracer Group will allow the studio to pursue more new games, and specifically more risky ideas than before.“We have so many new IP concepts in our incubator that they are ready to explode,” he said. “We could wait for the right publishing partner who is willing to place a bet, instead of just risking something they know Gearbox has done before. Those publishers who took risks on us for what we want to see next have always been But for some reason, they are not comfortable with that kind of risk. Now we can take that risk.
“We don’t need to burn the boats to do this. When Epic closed the deal, they ended up selling Gears of War to Microsoft. They burned the boats to show that they could do something you never expected from Epic before, and [gaming] took Fortnite out of it. We don’t have to do that. We can deliver as much as possible the IP we have and seek a new IP as a result of this relationship. This is incredibly exciting for me. I feel like we’re just getting started. “
The most recent in-house title developed by Gearbox was Borderlands 3 in 2019, although it has also published and supported recent releases, including Trover Saves the Universe, Godfall and Risk of Rain 2.
More recently, Gearbox released Psycho Krieg and Fantastic Fustercluck DLC for Borderlands 3, which our review called a “bizarre odyssey” that “has a big battle with a boss, but few other surprises”.
Rebekah Valentine is an IGN reporter. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.