Gearbox Software
More info
- Creator
- Randy Pitchford et al.
- Released
- 1999
- Owner
- Take-Two Interactive
- Type
- Game studio
The Texas studio that started as a Valve subcontractor and became known for Borderlands – and for finally shipping Duke Nukem Forever.
Founded in Texas in 1999 by Randy Pitchford and a few colleagues from the defunct studio Rebel Boat Rocker. Its first job was Half-Life: Opposing Force, an expansion for Valve's Half-Life, followed by ports of the same game. Its own Brothers in Arms series arrived in 2005 and Borderlands in 2009, a shooter–RPG hybrid with millions of randomly generated guns.
In 2010 Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem rights from 3D Realms and released Duke Nukem Forever in 2011, after fourteen years in development. The reviews did not quite justify the wait. Embracer bought the studio in 2021 and sold it to Take-Two in 2024 for a fraction of the price.