Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Was So Successful, Gearbox Is Turning It Into A Franchise

Released earlier this year, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands has proven to be a big success for Gearbox and 2K. In fact, it did so well that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford confirmed that the Borderlands spin-off is now the start of a brand new franchise, with more Wonderlands content to come in the future.

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was released in March of this year and was widely praised by fans and critics for its mix of first-person shooting, looting, and fantasy tropes. The game is a Borderlands spin-off, starring Tiny Tina as she DMs a tabletop RPG featuring other characters voiced by celebs, like Will Arnett’s villainous Dragon Lord. It was released across most platforms and while it suffered from some initial bugs and connection issues, it’s since improved and even received some new DLC over the last few months. All in all, it’s a damn good game, and it seems it’s now the start of something bigger: a whole new franchise.

During yesterday’s Embracer Group annual general meeting, Pitchford talked about how successful Wonderlands had been, saying that it “shattered all” of Gearbox’s critical and commercial expectations. While this will no doubt mean Gearbox and its parent company Embracer will see some extra cash come rolling in, the CEO also confirmed that there was more Wonderlands-related content to come, saying:

“I’m thrilled to report that, in addition to great financial rewards from this victory that will be coming our way in the coming quarters, we have established a firm beachhead and we now clearly have a new franchise on our hands, with future experiences already under development at Gearbox.”

It’s unclear what “future experiences” are already being developed. It could be a large, new paid expansion for Wonderlands or a full-on sequel. Or maybe both!

For Embracer, this is some much-needed good news as another one of its studios, Volition, didn’t have nearly as much success with its Saints Row reboot. While I personally enjoyed the game, most other folks didn’t, and even Embracer’s CEO seemed disappointed by its reception and sales.