Following Embracer Group’ssale of Gearbox Entertainment, Gearbox Publishing has rebranded to Arc Games. The newly minted label will handle publishing forHyper Light Breakerwhen it launches, as well as other Gearbox projects.
The situation may be confusing to those who don’t follow game industry acquisitions. The short version is that Gearbox (the developer) now exists under Take-Two Interactive, while Gearbox (the publisher) is now taking the form of Arc Games.
“We’re very excited to announce that we are now Arc Games,” the publisher posted in a message onHyper Light Breaker’sX (formerly Twitter) accountMonday. “We’re the same team of passionate gamers that brought you many beloved franchises including the Remnant series,Have a Nice Death, Star Trek Online, andNeverwinter. And we can’t wait to bring you even more exciting titles likeGigantic: Rampage Edition, Hyper Light Breaker, and more soon-to-be-announced games for 2025 and beyond!”
It’s the end of an odd saga that has seen a video game publisher rebrand multiple times. In 2008, Perfect World Entertainment was established as the North American operating branch of a Chinese game development company. Over time, Perfect World Entertainment made a name for itself by publishing games such asTorchlight, Star Trek Online, Gigantic, andRemnant: From the Ashesand running theArc game launcher. That success piqued the interest of Gearbox Entertainment, which acquired Perfect World Entertainment shortly after Gearbox itself had been swallowed up by Embracer Group. Perfect World Entertainment was then rebranded as Gearbox Publishing San Francisco, so games likeRemnant 2andHave a Nice Deathfell under the same studio banner as Borderlands, even though they were from a different team within Gearbox.
The situation got even messier when Embracer Group decided to offload Gearbox Entertainment as part of its lengthy restructuring program that’sresulted in lots of layoffs. Take-Two Interactive acquired Gearbox Entertainment, but was only interested in the development branches of the company, not the publisher. This left Gearbox Publishing San Francisco still under the ownership of Embracer Group without a name. With games likeGigantic: Rampage EditionandHyper Light Breakerimminent, Embracer Group would have to rename the label.
The rebrand to Arc Games makes sense, as it now aligns publisher’s name with the launcher and storefront established during the company’s Perfect World Entertainment era.
