Take-Two Reveals Plans To Launch A New Gearbox Franchise In 2022

During its latest earnings call, publisher Take-Two revealed plans to launch a new franchise with Borderlands studio Gearbox Software during the current fiscal year that will end on March 31, 2022. As part of its new strategy that VGC spotted, Take-Two plans to release 21 games, which will include four "immersive core" titles. Within that group, two of the games will be from "proven" franchises and the other two will be "new" titles according to CEO Strauss Zelnick.

Gearbox's game will be part of the new quartet of offerings in this "immersive core", with Take-Two president Karl Slatoff adding that these games are designed to offer the same sort of "highly engaging gameplay" as established brands within the company's portfolio, such as Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands.

Responding to the news, Gearbox CEO and part-time magician Randy Pitchford had a reaction that was more succinct than his previous comments about a rumored Borderlands spin-off:

The last couple of months have seen plenty of activity at Gearbox after it was acquired by Embracer Group in a $1.3 billion deal. Even with the company having new owners and a new game in development, Take-Two and 2K Games said that it would continue to work with Gearbox on the Borderlands franchise.

It has plenty of reason to hold onto the Borderlands IP as well, as the earnings call detailed how Borderlands 3 was "2K's fastest-selling title" and has shipped 13 million units since it launched in September 2019.

Borderlands 3 is still going strong and has launched a new seasonal event promising plenty of legendary loot ahead of the return of the Revenge of the Cartels challenge later this month.