A HISTORY OF GEARBOX ENTERTAINMENT

Borderlands 4 landed in September 2025 to widespread critical acclaim to start a new era in the iconic series. The game introduced players to Kairos, an entirely new planet and a seamless world, a first of its kind for Borderlands. Four new Vault Hunters made their appearance, and to accompany them on their journey, Gearbox delivered billions of  weapons for them to shoot and loot their way across Kairos. It is the boldest chapter yet in the Borderlands series.

Risk of Rain 2 also thrived in 2025 as its third new piece of post launch content for players to experience, Alloyed Collective, landed with a resounding success.

To honor 25 years of Gearbox, we continued to bring player-favorite franchises to life in 2024 across not only gaming, but cinema as well. The Borderlands movie launched in August 2024 and starred Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Ariana Greenblatt. It brought the Borderlands universe to life in a live-action setting for the first time, and it delighted audiences all over the globe. 

2024 also saw the release of Homeworld 3, marking the first time that a new mainline Homeworld game was released in more than 20 years. Homeworld 3 brought significant innovations to the real-time strategy series while honoring the epic, universe-spanning story that captivated players for decades. 

Risk of Rain 2’s journey continued in 2024 as Gearbox released Seekers of the Storm, the franchise’s second DLC and the first-ever developed by Gearbox. This marked a major milestone for Gearbox and the franchise. 

Following a long and successful relationship with 2K,  which served as the publisher of the Borderlands franchise, their parent company, Take-Two Interactive, acquired Gearbox Entertainment in March of 2024. This marked a new chapter for these long-time partners that would position them to deliver more expansive world-class entertainment to players.

2023 was a year of growth, adventure, and imagination without limits. Remnant 2, a shooter-RPG hybrid developed by Gunfire Games that introduced a new universe for players to discover, was launched by Gearbox Publishing and became an immediate global hit. Gearbox Publishing also introduced Blanc, developed by Casus Ludi, and Relic Hunters Legend, developed by Rogue Snail.

Risk of Rain 2, a rogue-like game that at this point had taken the genre by storm, was acquired by Gearbox Entertainment from Hopoo Games. Before handing the reins of the franchise to Gearbox, Hopoo re-released the original Risk of Rain for modern systems as Risk of Rain Returns. This game provided players with a fresh, updated look that captured all the magic of the original Risk of Rain, but with new features, characters, and quality of life improvements.

Building off of Borderlands Science’s success, we also launched Gearbox Gives, a program dedicated to supporting a range of philanthropic efforts. As part of this, Gearbox developed a video game-based science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum in the Longview Independent School District in Texas and an opportunity for remote students in Nairobi, Kenya, to learn the basics of game design and programming.

Our team and work continued to expand this year. We released Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, a new franchise spun off from the Borderlands series and serving as a spinoff to Borderlands 2 DLC Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep. A departure from the usual vault hunting shenanigans, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands took elements of the looter-shooter fun from the Borderlands games and combined it with more magic, allowing enemies to put world-shattering spells on any enemy who dares to combat. Gearbox continued to grow with no signs of slowing down.

New Tales from the Borderlands was released in 2022 and further expanded how Borderlands came to life on players’ screens with a graphic adventure game approach that brought the first game to life in Tales from the Borderlands in 2014.

We grew in size and appetite! We opened a second studio in Quebec – Gearbox Studio Montréal – expanding the Gearbox family. This year was all about growth, creativity, and a bit of that signature Gearbox magic. 

While the world was adapting to new ways of working, we stayed busy creating new experiences. Borderlands 3 continued to thrive with significant post launch content delivered to players that introduced new modes, and constant updates driven by our passionate community members. Risk of Rain 2 had its official 1.0 release, unlocking a hostile alien planet for estranged survivors everywhere.

Borderlands Science was developed in conjunction with McGill University, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and The Microsetta Initiative to put Vault Hunters’ skills to use for good. Borderlands Science is a puzzle game embedded within Borderlands 3 that benefits the real-world scientific community by presenting players with simple block puzzles based on strands of DNA, and by solving them players help to map and compare the microbes contained within.

Borderlands 3 was unleashed on the world. Our community jumped back into the mayhem with new guns, gear, endless loot, and plenty of Claptrap antics. The game broke records for both 2K and Gearbox, becoming the fastest-selling title in the franchise. 2019 was the year of Borderlands, and we loved every chaotic minute. 

This year, we turned up the volume on creativity. We Happy Few and Hello Neighbor continued to make their way into players’ hands, both full of charm and mystery. Meanwhile, our development teams were hard at work crafting the next evolution of Borderlands. With mayhem brewing and new games in development, 2018 set the stage for one of the biggest years in Gearbox history.

2017 was a year of invention and inspiration. Our teams pushed the limits of a re-release of Homeworld: Emergence, while our community continued to enjoy its prequel, Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak. While we expanded the Homeworld legacy, the gears were turning behind the scenes — and something big was on the horizon.

Even though we’re still getting used to our awesome new studio, and we’re still finding out who sits where, we found some time to release a few games. In 2016 we discovered a Homeworld origin story with Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, and we released our badass hero-shooter Battleborn.

So we did a few things in 2015. Not only did we release Homeworld: Remastered Collection and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection to the world (including our amazing Claptrap-In-A-Box edition), but we also moved from our previous headquarters in Plano, Texas, to our amazing new location in Frisco, Texas. We even squeezed in some time to host our fourth community day at PAX South in San Antonio, Texas. When all was said and done, we closed out the year by announcing the opening of Gearbox Studio Québec.

Has it really been 15 years already? I guess when you’re busy making some of the best games out there, it’s pretty easy to lose track of time. It also turns out that Borderlands 2 became the highest-selling game in 2K history, with over 8.5 MILLION copies sold! To celebrate this good news, we announced a few games: the best butt-slamming game out there – Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and the ultimate hero-shooter – Battleborn. Heck, we were even nice enough to release Borderlands:The Pre-Sequel the same year it was announced! How ya like us now?

During 2012 and 2013 we were hard at work on not only a new game, but a few parties as well. We announced and released the critically acclaimed Borderlands 2. Since you sometimes need a break from all of the hard work (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a good party?) we held our second and third Community Day events.

2010 and 2011 were pretty big years for Gearbox. Not only did we acquire and launch the “game that would never launch” – Duke Nukem Forever, but we also got together with a bunch of our closest friends and held our first ever Community Day in Dallas, Texas.

In 2009 we celebrated two huge events – not only did Gearbox turn 10 years old, but we also released Borderlands, the original shoot and loot to the world – sending millions of you on a quest to find Pandora’s vault.

With Brothers In Arms, we created a franchise from the ground up, which allowed people the chance to experience the stories and action of World War II like never before. From 2005 to 2008, we released a number of titles within the Brothers In Arms franchise: Road To Hill 30, Earned In Blood, D-Day, Brothers In Arms: DS, Double Time, and Hell’s Highway. 2008 also allowed us to venture into new and unknown territory with Samba De Amigo.

The first few years for Gearbox found us primarily working within the Half-Life universe with titles such as Half-Life: Counter-Strike, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and even porting Half-Life to the Playstation2. When we needed to take a break from Black Mesa, we released a few other great games: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PC, James Bond 007: Nightfire, and even put out Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC.

Who could have known all the way back in 1999 that the release of Half-Life: Opposing Force would be the start to something so amazing? With just a handful of super-dedicated people putting in an insane amount of effort, energy, love, and passion, they were able to put out a fantastic expansion pack. Half-Life: Opposing Force gave players a truly unique perspective – experiencing the events of Half-Life as a member of U.S. Marine forces, sent in to quell all alien threats and silence allwitnesses.