With games like
Brothers in Arms and
Borderlands, developer Gearbox Software's expertise is clearly in the first-person shooter genre.
That's why after
acquiring the Homeworld strategy game franchise from THQ this year, Gearbox has decided that the best people to make a new
Homeworld would probably be the people who made
Homeworld.
According to reps for Gearbox, CEO Randy Pitchford announced his studio has struck a deal with
Blackbird Interactive, a Vancouver-based studio founded in 2007 by core members of Relic Entertainment, the studio that created the
Homeworld strategy game franchise.
The announcement was made at the game industry-facing PAX Dev last week. Gearbox will be funding further development of the new game, now to be called
Homeworld: Shipbreakers.
Since 2010, Blackbird had been developing the game as
Hardware: Shipbreakers, a free-to-play RTS game that would be essentially the spiritual successor to the
Homeworld franchise.
Gearbox's acquisition of the franchise in April was led by the studio's chief creative officer Brian Martel, a professed fan of the series.
We expect more details from Gearbox later this week, including what the game's business model might be, and prospects for distribution of the game.
