Take-Two Interactive has confirmed that Borderlands 4 is in development. But that’s not all they’re working on.
The publisher revealed this in a press release from Businesswire. They said:
“Take-Two will acquire Gearbox’s extensive portfolio of intellectual property, including full ownership of the critically and commercially acclaimed Borderlands and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands franchises, as well as Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, Duke Nukem, and Gearbox’s future pipeline.
Gearbox currently has six key interactive entertainment projects in various stages of development, including five sequels, two of which are from the Borderlands and Homeworld franchises, and at least one exciting new intellectual property.”
Funnily enough, we know the most about the Homeworld sequel among all of them. Homeworld 3 will be released on May 13, 2024, as Gearbox announced the title would get one more delay to polish it up, just last month.
So that’s an interesting roundup for Gearbox’s immediate future. Of the four unannounced titles, three are sequels, and one is a completely new IP. That could mean new games for Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem each.
Of these franchises, the most recent release was Risk of Rain 2. This third person roguelike shooter released across multiple platforms in 2020. In contrast, the last Duke Nukem release was Duke Nukem3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, which came out in 2016, and the last Brothers in Arms AAA release was Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, released all the way back in 2008. On the side, Randy confirmed that there is a new Brothers in Arms title in development, but we don’t know if it’s a full AAA game, a mobile game, or a spinoff.
But it’s also possible that some of these sequels are also other games in the Borderlands universe, as that’s Gearbox’s bread and butter. We now know of three spinoffs in this franchise, and given Gearbox’s latest push to get the most out of the IP, they could also introduce even more spinoffs.
And it could be any combination of spinoffs of these different IPs. But perhaps the most intriguing title promised was the original IP. Gearbox hasn’t always seen success with their game projects, with their most famous dud being 2016’s Battleborn.
While it’s unlikely that Gearbox will try to make a hero shooter again, they may now seek to ride the trend in live service in other ways. They could be working on an extraction shooter, or a battle royale. Or, they could turn things around from a 6v6 PvP shooter to PvE.
Gearbox could also surprise us completely and try a completely new genre just for the hell of it. After all, Tango Gameworks showed us a lot when they released Hi-Fi Rush, and we’ve also seen Obsidian go out of left field with Pentiment. This original title may not be so much a new projected money maker as much as it is a passion project.
In any case, we are certainly looking forward to a lot with this new Gearbox under Take-Two Interactive.
