During the Gearbox Panel at PAX Australia, CEO Randy Pitchford and CCO Brian Martel talked about obtained the Homeworld license from THQ when it went bankrupt.
As reported by Polygon, Pitchford stated that, “When THQ started to evaporate, Brian kept coming to my office everyday and saying, ‘Hey Randy, you got to get Homeworld.’ So we became part of that process bidding on the brand. It got down to three bidders and they decided to do a live auction on the telephone; and two of the other bidders were publishers. We were the only developer. And that was really interesting.”
He also stated that Alex Garden, Relic Entertainment’s founder and the creator of the franchise, was happy that Gearbox obtained the IP. Garden also offered his support but as Martel states, “We are going to upgrade all the ships, make it look amazing for current-gen. At this point it needs a fresh coat of paint.”
Gearbox Software is currently planning to remake both Homeworld 1 and 2, and will be re-releasing the original games as digital downloads.