Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands May Be the Start of a New Franchise

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was just released earlier this year, but it has done incredibly well for itself already. The first-person fantasy RPG is a Borderlands spinoff and the sequel to Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. It was released on PC in June, and on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S in March. During the recent Embracer Group’s AGM, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford expressed his enthusiasm for the game that “exceeded expectations.” He even tossed around the f-word: franchise.

As one of many Borderlands spin-offs, it was likely that the game would get positive attention. Apparently, it far exceeded expectations though, and now the CEO of Gearbox is already considering Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands as the next franchise for the company. Now that Gearbox has acquired the co-developing company of the game, Lost Boys Interactive, their team is certainly big enough to start working on the new games. The company has around 1,300 employees now thanks to the merger, and they have its sights set on a new game.

“Wonderlands shattered all of our target expectations, both critically and commercially, and I’m thrilled to report that in addition to great financial rewards from this victory that will be coming our way in the coming quarters, we have established a firm beachhead. We now clearly have a new franchise on our hands, with future experiences already under development at Gearbox.”

Randy Pitchford, Gearbox CEO

The beachhead he mentions is likely a reference to Gearbox’s series of action RPG looter-shooter games. Borderlands started the franchise and has since grown into multiple sequels and spin-offs. There are four main games in the franchise, multiple DLCs, and at least six spin-off series. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Borderlands Legends, and the upcoming New Tales from the Borderlands are just a few of these spin-offs. The original Borderlands game sold over two million units in its first year and has been considered one of the greatest video games of all time.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is set after the one-shot adventure of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. Tiny Tina is now the game master of a table-top fantasy game called “Bunkers and Badasses,” changing the game’s rules as she goes. Players play one of her newest customizable characters, called the Newbie, from a first-person perspective. The goal of the game is to defeat the Dragon Lord, who knows that he is in a game and wants revenge against Tiny Tina. There are tons of crazy characters to meet and the dialogue is fun and witty.

While Pitchford mentions more “experiences already under development,” there’s no way to know right now if that means a completely new Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands game or some more DLCs. Either way, for fans of the series, it’s exciting that it did so well. It appears that the game’s future is secured, at least for another game or two.

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