REACTION - Gearbox reportedly being put up for sale is a bad omen

Embracer’s gonna Embracer.

By Jonathan Garrett
11/09/23

We’ve made it fiercely clear at thatHITBOX how much distain we have for the manner in which Embracer has chosen to conduct itself in the videogame space, after a spree of high profile acquisitions led to the collapse of a major investment funding source and some very high profile closures. Their closure of Volition being perhaps their most egregious misstep.

Now, with today’s report in Reuters suggesting that Gearbox is being shopped around for a potential buyout, we continue to be nervous. Gearbox are an enormous entity, with some huge IP. Their worth is not in question. But we’ve seen this kind of behaviour from Embracer before, and it didn’t pan out for Saints Row developer Volition in any way, shape or form. In fact, we called it well before hand, although that’s not something we’re proud of.

Bottom line: if Embracer is about to bin off one of the biggest third party publishers around, I sincerely hope Gearbox and everyone involved land on their feet.

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TARPS?

At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.