Borderlands 3 developers leave the gearbox

Several seniors Borders 3 developers are leaving Gearbox to work together on a new unannounced project, Axes reported today.

Departures included loot shooter creative director Paul Sage, lead producer Christopher Brock, art director Scott Kester, UX director Chris Strasz, lead mission designer Keith Schuler and lead artist Kevin Penrod. According to Axes, the resignations were announced two weeks ago, and amounted to seven in total, without however specifying who this last person was.

“I can confirm that a handful of developers are moving into a new independent effort outside of Gearbox,” said Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox. Kotaku in a statement, noting that the separation went on good terms. “Prior to their transition, the group was part of an unannounced pre-production team and their departure will disrupt our current plans as little as possible.”

He added that the studio is currently focused on completing Borders spin off Little Tina’s Wonderland, announced last month and is slated for release in early 2022, and that the team is still “on track” to reach that release window.

It is not clear if the project currently in pre-production is Borderlands 4 or something else. In a Twitter thread a few months ago, Pitchford wrote “If someone has the skills to pay bills and wants to participate in some Borders action, we are working on the big one.

This is the second round of high-profile departures after Gearbox’s $ 1.3 billion sale to Swedish video game group Embracer, which also owns THQ Nordic and Koch Media, in February. Borders 3 co-writer, Danny Homan, left in May. Pitchford said in an interview at the time that the agreement “created a bunch of millionaires”In the company because of the number of developers who owned shares.

Borders 3 released in 2019 and just received a new update in June which increased the max level and finally added cross play. Meanwhile, a Borders movie with Cate Blanchett, Jack Black and others should be released next year.