Rumors circulated last year that Gearbox Studios, creator of "Borderlands," would be sold, and it appears to have come to fruition. This means a move out of the shadows for the proverbial giant Embracer Group, which has had an interesting year and a bit, to say the least. [After splashing out in 2022, the group, which garnered an unsavory reputation for studio acquisitions, has been scrambling to recover for most of the year after a $2 billion deal fell through the floorboards, crashed through several floors and into a basement boiler, setting the whole place on fire.

This involved a human cost of approximately 5% of the workforce. Subsequently, Free Radical Design, creator of Time Splitters, and Eidos Montreal, the studio behind Deus Ex, saw any possibility of a sequel fizzle out; Saints Row Studio Volition was also shut down entirely; and the Saints Row Studio Volition was closed down, with the only other studio to have been shut down in the past year being the Saints Row Studio Volition, which was closed down in the early 1990s. Other affected companies include 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks, Cryptic Studios, Zen Studios, and New World Interactive. piranha Bytes, the developer of "Gothic," "Risen," and "Elex," said last month that it was "in a difficult situation and even studios that have not yet been touched are sounding the alarm.

The 1,600-employee "restructuring" is all about "maximizing shareholder value," leading to a subtle tease to the industry as a whole as Embracer Group continues its mission to say the quiet parts a little too loudly for anyone's comfort.

However, according to a source who spoke to Kotaku, a town hall was held last week with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, where Pitchford announced that "a decision has been made regarding the future of the studio and more information will be shared in the next month." And the report goes on to say: Kotaku understands that "a decision has been made on the sale and the deal is in the late final stages."

This follows yesterday's Bloomberg report on the planned sale of Sabre Interactive, in which Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors, in his infamous financial report, at least matches Kotaku's "sale is in the late stages" report The statement is made: "Embracer is still in the process of several large structured divestitures: ...... The process is in the maturity stage."

Pitchford himself did not say much about the matter to Kotaku other than the fact that "what we are trying to do is interesting enough for people to want to write about us for their readers."

While it is a relief to see Gearbox developers crawl out from under their mid-collapse house of cards, they have not been unstoppable along the way: an "independent subsidiary" under the Gearbox Software umbrella, Lost Boys Interactive, suffered layoffs just a month and a half ago.