Still in Embracer's custody, Gearbox Publishing SF rebrands to Arc Games

With Gearbox Software now in Take-Two's hands, Gearbox Publishing San Francisco has been renamed to Arc Games.

After last week's $460 million split from Gearbox, Embracer maintained control of the San Franisco publisher.

A studio changing its name can also herald some kind of structural change. That's not the case here: in its post, Arc stressed that everything else is business as usual.

Meaning, Arc will still publish previously agreed-upon games like Hyper Light Breaker, and continue to be involved in titles such as Star Trek Online and Gunfire Games' Remnant series.

"It's still the same publishing team since Remnant 1," said series designer Ben Cureton. "This is a name change for our publisher, and it doesn't affect [Gunfire]."

Arc Games and Perfect World

The Borderlands studio started publishing third-party games in 2016 with a remaster of Bulletstorm. In 2022, its efforts grew substantial after Embracer bought Perfect World Entertainment.

At time of writing, Arc's new name hasn't resulted in any layoffs. By comparison, Gearbox cut staff just hours after announcing its independence, and both studios were hit with reductions while owned by Embracer.

Last week, CEO Lars Wingefors said Embracer would end its near-yearlong restructuring efforts. Those plans saw layoffs and closures at a number of subsidiaries, along with the more recent sales of Gearbox and Saber Interactive.

In the immediate future, Wingefors said the plan is to release good games, with Arc presumably help leading the charge on that front.

Update: This post has been changed to clarify Gearbox Publishing SF stayed with Embracer following the Gearbox split, and is now existing as Arc Games.