There's some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Gearbox Software plans on reviving Brothers In Arms, the strategic military shooter set during World War II. The bad news is that it sounds like it might be another outsourced project from Gearbox Software.
IGN picked up quotes from Gearbox president Randy Pitchford during the Develop: Brighton event where Pitchford answered some selected questions that were fielded through the Twitter hashtag AskRandy. One of the questions was about the future of Brothers In Arms and Pitchford explained where the company was with the property, saying...
I think the next Brothers in Arms game has to be authentic and we have been working on that," he says. "I feel we have unfinished business there with both the fiction and the history and I’d like to get into that. I spend a lot of time thinking about it.Sadly it takes a lot of resources, energy and money to do what must be done, so it’s not something I feel I could completely do alone. I need good partners for it, so we’ve been talking to great folks but it’s really putting all that together that’s the limiting factor. Once we put all the partnerships together in terms of publishing, collaborators and creatives, we can talk about it.
Gearbox Software originally made a name for themselves as modders, and then for handling ports of other AAA games. Eventually they came into their own and began making waves with the Brothers In Arms series.
Gearbox really broke through the mainstream barrier with the first Borderlands, which was a multi-million selling brand across home consoles and PC. With Borderlands being such a hot property Brothers In Arms was put on the back-burner after Hell's Highway back in 2008. Gamers were asking about the series and Gearbox occasionally teased Brothers In Arms: Furious Four, but it wasn't very well received due to its fictionalized, over-the-top, nearly comical take on World War II.
The series has been dormant ever since, with nothing more than a few demo videos and tech demonstrations showing up every once in a while.
As this point, though, Pitchford makes it known that Brothers In Arms is still in the “incubation” phase, saying...
I feel like I’m on the brink of it, but we’re not quite there yet. Once it happens development will really take off and then sometime after that - if we don’t completely kill ourselves - we’ll announce. But we’re in the incubation phase with the next one there, for sure.
At the moment they're currently finishing up Battleborn due out for release this holiday season and they've also been staffing up for Borderlands 3. So I imagine Brothers In Arms would be conceptualized by Gearbox but then outsourced for another studio to actually work on, similar to what Pitchford mentioned about the next Duke Nukem game.
I'm curious how fans will take this news? Is it better if Gearbox Software internally handles Brothers In Arms or is it better if they collaborate with another studio like they did with Aliens: Colonial Marines? It seems like right now everything Gearbox says and does will be scrutinized top to bottom through a fine-tooth comb.
