Gearbox Bought out

 Egads, it's raining acquisition money out here!

I find it hard to formulate my thoughts on Gearbox, or at least in any manner that's consistent and reaches an actual conclusion. On one hand they are the creators of the spectacular Borderlands games, which I love, and on the otherhand they're propagators of some of the shadiest deals I've heard from the industry outside of Activision and EA. Their talent as creators is nigh on inspirational to a no-life like me, but their owner seems like a lunatic who's exploits are more volatile than anyone is his position has any right to facilitate. I want to get behind them and say that I consider Gearbox to be one of the good ones, but I can't quite cross that threshold and it irks me. All of this is to say that I honestly do not know whether it bodes well or ill that they've recently been acquired by THQ.

But first the good; THQ is one heck of a storied name in the industry and it's good to see them making big moves again! I for one, remember them back to some of my earliest gaming memories with the old WWE gamesand of course the classic Saints Row games, but it sort of feels like they've gotten a little lost under the waves in recent years. Don't get me wrong, the publisher still gets out some good games, I loved Desperados 3 and Kingdoms of Amalur ain't half bad, but there hasn't really been that flagship franchise which keeps their logo forever on my startup screen. Not really since Volition took their Saints Row franchise to the dark place. (Has it really been almost 8 years since Saints Row 4? Good god, I'm feeling the existential dread starting to creep up on me again!) Now that THQ has managed to secure Gearbox, a frankly huge studio in their own right, I can only imagine big things coming out of them. Or rather, they want to start making big things in the months to come because 1.3 billion in acquisition dollars demands to be recouped.

Which is why I find myself curious, just what is it that Gearbox have up their sleeve? I'd say that this is pretty much cold confirmation that there's some brand new franchise cooking up in Gearbox's oven, due to the fact that this deal is said to apply for the publishing of future brands and how 'Borderlands' will remain the provision of 2K games. Something big must be stirring for them, and considering how much money went into this deal I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't the start of many big changes. Right now Gearbox is in a pretty blessed position, with a new partner studio in tow and, incredulously, a blockbluster movie about their flagship franchise in the work with a frankly embarrassing amount of talent attached, I'd say this could be the dawn of a new age for Gearbox.

Gearbox hasn't really been a small developer, by anyone's estimation of what constitutes 'small', for a very long time, but they've never really been massive either. According to linkedin Gearbox Software boasts around 500-1000 employees, and whilst I'd say that's plenty for a few studios to operate, I'd wonder if sights aren't set a little higher. Bare in mind that everything I'm saying here is speculation, but I've always felt that Gearbox is one of those names that I expected to be as diverse and sprawling as Blizzard around about now, but they've stayed rather centralised. I always felt like there should be a whole bevy of profitable franchises practically oozing out of Gearbox's offices, but instead we've had but one and a few failed attempts at diversification. Duke Nukem, dud. Aliens, dud. Battleborn, unfortunately a dud. (I liked that game) Maybe now is the day that things start changing, and with THQ backing them perhaps there's the security in place for a bit more experimentation? (Well, lets be honest. More money typically means less experimentation. But at least some more unique AAA series' out of Gearbox, I think we'd all be happy for that.)

My only errant thoughts on the matter is "How is Randy Pitchford gonna mess this up?", because you know Randy is going to try something. The man is like an almost lovable clown who goofs up in all the right ways to make you laugh, but then you remember that he's a important man in charge of the livelihoods of hundreds of talented developers and then suddenly his gaffes don't seem as fun anymore. Let us not forget, for example, the accusations of mismanagement, the loss of sensitive company files (which he lost alongside his porn stash) and the alleged misappropriation of development fund which is legally not proven but it really does make sense given the state of the game which apparently suffered because of it. (Hint: rumours are it was Aliens Colonial Marines) Oh, and then there's just his unprofessional conduct which borders on childish at times. And then there's the fact that he's a magician. Never trust a magician. It's literally their hobby to fool you.

Provided that everything goes to plan, however, THQ could be be on the verge of quite the resurgence on the gaming scene. I mean just these past few years have been crazy for the amount of old IPs that THQ Nordic specifically has been snatching up, we've just been waiting for the studio to actually do something about them. Maybe now they'll have that manpower. They've recently acquired the IPs for Alone in the Dark, Gothic, Risen, Carmageddon (really?), Remnant: From Ashes, Biomutant, Darksiders, Destroy all Humans and, most importantly of all, Timesplitters! Oh god, imagine a Timesplitters from Gearbox! Imagine how absolutely brilliant that would be! Talk about the dream developer to revive one of my favourite franchises of all- oh they sold that IP to Deep Silver. Bummer.

Still, I would love to see Gearbox tackle any one of those former dead series', because we know what that team can do with FPS' but I personally would love to see their takes elsewhere. How would they bring their unique eye and charm to a horror setting like Alone in the Dark, or maybe a new Destroy All Humans game to bank off of the recent trend started by the remake. Am I playing around with my imagination a little here? Yes, but can you blame me?; there's a playground worth of toys now available to Gearbox through THQ and I'm itching to see them go nuts with it. Hell, even a cheap remake of Carmageddon run through the Gearbox studio is sure to have something wild and crazy done to it, I just want to see Gearbox branch out a bit. (Unless THQ decide to buy back Timesplitters and Gearbox want a go at that; that marks the one exception I would jump over the moon for.)

At the end of the day, however, this is really just another billion dollar acquisition that marks the industry getting just the little bit smaller. I'm sure it's everybody's dream to get snapped up by a big publisher with unlimited pockets (Seriously, 1.3 billion! What the heck?) but I wonder if it's good for the creative spirit of the AAA world. Maybe Gearbox isn't the greatest example of creative excellence, the last brand new game out of them which wasn't an FPS was 2011's 'Aliens: Infestation', but it's still indicative of a culture of market consolidation. But I've gotten to the point where I'm waxing lyrical about market trends, which means this little diatribe is getting seriously off-track. Overall, Congrats to Randy on his impending third mansion, I'm sure he needs it.