Take-Two just held its fiscal year earnings call yesterday, and while their biggest takeaways all centered around GTA 5 and how that game refuses to stop printing money, there was another tidbit announced that almost flew under the radar.
CEO Strauss Zelnick announced that the publisher will release 21 games during the new fiscal year, including four “immersive core” games, as noted by VGC. Those core games will feature two from “proven” franchises and two more from entirely “new” ones.
Gearbox will produce at least one of these 21 games, and will likely be one of those “immersive core” games.
Take-Two president Karl Slatoff added that the four new games will have “highly engaging gameplay” along the same lines as Red Dead Redemption, Borderlands, or GTA Online. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford didn’t entirely confirm the report, but he didn’t deny it either.
Although Gearbox was acquired by Embracer Group earlier this year, that hasn’t stopped the Texas-based developer from continuing to make games for Take-Two. In its earnings call, Zelnick called Borderlands 3 “2K’s fastest-selling title” with 13 million units shipped so far. 2K confirmed itself as the Borderlands publisher following Embracer’s acquisition, but there was no mention of any brand new Gearbox titles at the time.
Recently, however, Gearbox announced plans to hire for the next “big one.” Pitchford denied rumors that it’s working as co-developer for another Borderlands game and instead confirmed it was taking point on any future Borderlands titles. He didn’t say whether it would be a spinoff or the next mainline Borderlands game, but with today’s news, it seems like Gearbox might be working on a Borderlands game and a new franchise at the same time.
The last time Gearbox ventured out of its comfort zone was with Battleborn, which didn’t exactly turn out so well. Here’s hoping that whatever Gearbox is cooking up this time around fares a bit better.
