Seven senior Borderlands developers have left Gearbox to work on a new independent game. As originally reported by Axios, senior producer Christopher Brock, lead mission designer Keith Schuler, art director Scott Kester, creative director Paul Sage, game feel director Chris Strasz, and lead character artist Kevin Penrod have all left the company.
According to the report, all of these developers were working on the same project that is currently in pre-production, and their departure was allegedly announced inside of Gearbox two weeks ago. Fortunately, the developers appear to have parted on good terms with Gearbox, as Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford explained to Axios that the project has new blood working on it.
"Before their transition, the group was part of a not-yet-announced pre-production team and their departure will cause minimal disruption in our current plans," Pitchford said.
Gearbox is busy with a number of projects after it was acquired by Embracer Group for $1.3 billion. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a Borderlands spin-off that's currently in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S, just in time for the franchise's upcoming leap to the big screen.
Next year's Borderlands film is directed by Eli Roth and has a stacked cast which includes Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Jamie Lee Curtis as Patricia Tannis, Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap, Kevin Hart as Roland, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Florian Munteanu as Kreig, and Edgar Ramirez as Atlas.
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