According to former staffers' Linkedin profiles, a series of layoffs have reportedly been conducted at Gearbox Publishing. Former employees throughout the summer and as recently as this week revealed they were let go from the publishing arm of the Borderlands developer.
"No one saw it coming, but my contract and those of my colleagues who started in June had to be terminated," wrote translator Allan Jacquemart in June. "We were simply victims of the group's restructuring."
Gearbox and Embracer
Gearbox is a subsidiary of Embracer, which said at the start of the summer it would cut jobs after spending so much money to acquire various studios and properties. The layoffs (and by extension, the projects cancelled at affected studios) have been made in response to a reported $2 billion deal with Savvy Games that collapsed back in May.
At the start of August, Embracer shut down Danish studio Campfire Cabal, and earlier today announced the closure of Volition.
In 2015, Gearbox began to publish games from third-party studios, with its debut title being the 2016 remaster of People Can Fly's Bulletstorm. Recent releases include Gunfire Games' Remnant II from July and Heart Machine's Hyper Light Breaker for 2024.
Game Developer reached out to Gearbox Publishing and Embracer to inquire about the full total of layoffs. This story will be updated when a comment is provided.