Gearbox offers highest bid for Homeworld

Pending court approval, Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines developer Gearbox Software is the new owner of the Homeworld IP.

In a post on the company's website, Gearbox said it plans to re-release both Homeworld and Homeworld 2, "with the intent of making them accessible on today's leading digital platforms".

Chief creative officer Brian Martel was the key figure behind Gearbox's push to acquire the IP, and said in a statement that he has "great love and respect for Relic's brilliant, fun and innovative game".

Interestingly the developer has asked fans to visit its forums and express their opinion of what should happen to the property moving forward - and also put out a call for anybody interested in actually working on the franchise.

Gearbox's acquisition of the Homeworld IP will have to be approved in court, with settlement likely to occur around the end of May if all goes smoothly. It bid $1.35 million for the franchise.

Homeworld is a series of two real-time strategy science fiction titles developed by Relic Entertainment, but left neglected since the last release in 2003. In THQ's collapse, Relic was purchased by Sega.

Indie developer teamPixel had launched a crowd-funding campaign to try and purchase the Homeworld rights, but was outbid. It had also planned to re-release the two titles and had a touch version up and running. It was graceful in defeat, however, and will probably be happy to see the games back on sale rather than locked up in a back catalogue.