Embracer CEO and co-founder Lars Wingefors said, “Today’s announcement marks the result of the final structured divestment process and is an important step in transforming Embracer into the future with notably lower net debt and improved free cash flow. Through the transaction, we lower business risk and improve profitability as we transition to becoming a leaner and more focused company.

“After evaluating several options for Gearbox, I am happy that we have reached a solution that is in the best interest of all stakeholders. Randy and the team have been great team members throughout the past years, and I would like to thank them all for that. As one of the world’s greatest games developers, I am confident that Gearbox will continue to innovate and thrive in their new home within Take-Two.”

Gearbox Entertainment CEO Randy Pitchford added, ”As a significant long-term Embracer Group shareholder, I believe in the strategy for the Embracer Group and am completely convinced that this transaction is the best possible scenario and an obvious net positive arrangement for Embracer Group, for Take-Two and, of course, for Gearbox Entertainment.

“My primary interest is always Gearbox, especially our talent and customers. I want to personally assure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best they can possibly be.”

Take-Two is no stranger to working with Gearbox, having published the Borderlands series, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the underwhelming Battleborn and long-in-development Duke Nukem Forever under its 2K Games label. Gearbox’s sale follows that of Saber Interactive, recently acquired by a private investor group, and nearly a year of studio closures and layoffs at Embracer.

As for the future of Gearbox, it’s reportedly working on Borderlands 4, with leadership rumored to have faced a reshuffling, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2, which allegedly saw a “soft” reboot. Stay tuned for more details and potential announcements in the coming months.

Crash Bandicoot 1

For all the flak that Crash Bandicoot gets about its difficulty, Naughty Dog weren’t complete sadists. If you die too many times, the game will begin removing environmental hazards and shifting checkpoints near obstacles to tip the scales in your favour. Bizarre? Sure but it’s the least egregious way to ensure players keep progressing.

Homeworld Remastered is a project that was announced a while back, much to the jubilation and caution apprehension of PC gamers worldwide. The rights to the classic space RTS, which was made by Company of Heroes studio Relic Entertainment, were acquired by Gearbox Studios, which is… a bit of an odd mix, really. Gearbox is the company that has made its name by crafting some addictive first person shooters. What in the world do they know about making strategy titles?

Well, they may not know much, but they do know a lot about aesthetics. And when remastering an old beloved classic, that can mean a lot. Homeworld and Homeworld 2 (the two games that will be included in this package) were gorgeous games to begin with, but right now, they really jump out from the screen, alive.

Check out the footage for yourself above, and tell us what you think.

My only hope is they don’t touch the iconic original soundtrack. I would be so mad if they messed it up.

While rumours have been running rampant as to Gearbox Software’s next few projects, including the chances of Borderlands 3 arriving. However, studio president Randy Pitchford has clarified to Polygon, “I’m not going to f**k around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3.

“Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don’t know what it is yet. But we are doing things in Borderlands that we’ll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise.”

Gearbox is currently planning to release the original Homeworld games, remade with new graphics, along with Furious Four, the next Brothers in Arms and two new games which will be new IP. “We invested a lot to remaster the original Homeworld and Homeworld 2. We’ll be releasing them on digital platforms in fully remastered – not just ported to work, but fully remastered. If you have a new crazy-ass Nvidia 780TI or an Nvidia Titan and you happen to have one of those $3,000 4K monitors, you’re going to see an unbelievable image.”

But no one can deny that Borderlands 3 would be top. We’d gladly take so many new and interesting projects if they have the potential to be as awesome as the loot-based shooter though.R Do you agree? Let us know below.

“We didn’t have a clear long-range plan when we started. The other folks that were bidding are great people, but their interests were different. Knowing how important it was to Brian, we had to know that it was not going to end up with folks who were treating it like a commodity. Even if we might not be optimal to make the next game, there’s a whole body of very talented, very creative people. The right kind of team can be put together to do something wonderful. Even though we had no clear path, we had a lot of trust and confidence that the plan would appear.”

Of course, this was due to the fact the developer has (and still has) other things going on. “We’re kind of busy. Borderlands became a massive thing. We’ve put a huge amount of our mindshare and effort into that. Also the next-generation of console is really exciting to us. So, Gearbox has begun developing two original properties. Two new original things for the next-generation. We haven’t announced what those are yet, but the consequences of all that is that our internal mindshare has been very tapped. For us to internally start an effort to make a sequel to Homeworld would have wait.”

Thus Gearbox turned to Blackbird Interactive, with Hardware: Shipbreakers becoming Homeworld: Shipbreakers. Pitchford is satisfied that things turned out this way, but is still thinking about how to distribute the game. “We can do right by the brand, we can certainly promote it, but we’re going to have to figure out the publishing path for this game. There’s a lot of options. Digital is a nice, clean, easy option, but there’s still a lot of value in retail. That’ll be fun to navigate. There’s a lot of interesting, stimulating problems in the business of [making games].”

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.

The company stated that, “Gearbox Software has prevailed as the highest bidder in the acquisition of the Homeworld franchise from THQ. Brian Martel, Gearbox Software’s Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic’s brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition.

“Brian intends as first priority to direct Gearbox’s interest to preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today’s leading digital platforms.”

So you can look out for both games to be on Steam soon, if not PSN/XBLA. Will we see a sequel or an adaptation for iOS/Android? That’s the dream – let’s hope Gearbox is capable of carrying it forward when their bid is finalized come May end.

“We hope you will join us in supporting Homeworld’s new owners in building a future for the franchise. We anticipate an announcement of the new owner to be made within a couple weeks and for the sale to be finalized around mid-May.

“As a special thanks, we would like to offer each and every donor a special credit in our upcoming space RTS game. Yes, this means we will still be moving forward with our own Homeworld-inspired space RTS, but under our own intellectual property.”

The Kickstarter campaign began on March 4th along with an IndieGogo campaign that raised an additional $13,675. Private funding also added to the total amount.