Embracer Sells Gearbox to 2K; Layoffs Included

It is difficult to tell the owners of any given company now, as you’ll have noticed when looking up a developer on Wikipedia. Rockstar is owned by Take-Two which also owns 2K, Microsoft now owns Activision-Blizzard|King which in turn owns The Simpson’s Hit & Run developer Radical Entertainment. Just last week, Headup announced the intention to buy the company back into independence from Thunderful. Taking a step back to 2019, Embracer (previously THQ Nordic AB) got a little too happy with a forthcoming investment of $2-billion that would later fall through, buying up Square Enix Montréal, Eidos-Montréal, Saber, and even the resurrection of Free Radical.

One such studio, purchased for $1.3-billion in 2021, was Half-Life: Opposing Force and Blue Shift developer Gearbox Software. You might have heard last week that only three years after the purchase, Embracer seeks to divest Gearbox by selling the company and its studios (minus select assets) to Take-Two Interactive under the 2K banner. Don’t worry, I sometimes need a flow chart for all of this too. Despite that announcement last Wednesday with 2K welcoming Gearbox over, Embracer is giving the developer a parting gift. They are laying off more employees.

Along with countless others, I've just been informed I've been laid off at Gearbox. It really was a dream come true working on this team, and I'm incredibly grateful for my time here.

I'll be making another pinned post that I'm ✨️ looking for work ✨️

— Jennifer Locke (@JenLocke95) March 28, 2024

Thursday, “Soon-to-be former PR Manager @GearboxOfficial” Jennifer Locke took to Twitter to announce, “Along with countless others, I’ve just been informed I’ve been laid off at Gearbox.” Locke and others revealed this lay-off is just the latest in Embracer’s “restructuring programming” as a result of a CEO’s deep pockets with nothing to fill them. Here’s an idea Lars, buy stuff when you have the money to spend it. I know, a novel concept but I think it is so radical (so Free Radical) that it might just work and you don’t have to lay off sum 1400 people.

In fact, a peak behind the curtains here: For research, I dug up some old articles from Gamesindustry.biz, with one from 2018, titled “People of the Year 2018: Lars Wingefors.” At the time it made sense, but the opening paragraph seems almost prophetic at this point. EIC James Batchelor said, “If the old THQ was the prime example of how a games business can completely collapse, THQ Nordic [now Embracer] surely is a textbook on how to build a new one.” From being held up as the poster boy of how to run a large-scale publishing/rights holder to mass layoffs and great restructuring of the very same company in a little over 5 years.

So what is being divested and what is being retained by Embracer? Suppose you are somehow boring enough to watch a financial hearing PowerPoint presentation. In that case, Embracer notes that it will retain Star Trek Online developer Cryptic, Lost Boys Interactive, Captured Dimensions, and Gearbox Publishing San Francisco. The latter of which is noted as “to be renamed prior to closing.” Alongside that, of course, Star Trek Online and Neverwinter Online will remain, as they are developed by Cryptic. As will the publishing rights of both the Remnant franchise and Hyper Light Breaker, and previously unannounced titles.

What exactly is moving over to become part of 2K is Gearbox Entertainment, Gearbox Software, Gearbox Studio Montréal, and Gearbox Studio Québec. Alongside these four studios are the rights to the Borderlands franchise, the superior Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands franchise, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem. Don’t worry, all the things you actually care about are safe in the hands of the company owned by Straus Zelnick, which sounds both better and worse at the same time. At least the layoffs and restructuring seem to have stopped, for now.