Hardware: Shipbreakers becomes official Homeworld title

Hardware: Shipbreakers, a spiritual successor to iconic PC strategy title Homeworld is set to become an official entry in the franchise.

Gearbox Software, which bought the rights to Homeworld at one of THQs bankruptcy auctions earlier this year for $1.35m, has signed a deal to lend the IP to Blackbird Interactive, the developer behind the in-development title.

Hardware: Shipbreakers was announced earlier this year and is considered a spiritual successor to Homeworld with several members of Blackbird Interactive being members of the original Homeworld team from Relic Entertainment.

As well as lending the rights to the Homeworld series, Gearbox has also pledged financial and production assistance to ensure the game gets completed. Blackbird is now hiring and expanding its team to ramp up production.

These guys have been funded by private equity, but it's clear it was going to take many millions of dollars more,' Gearbox chief executive Randy Pitchford told Polygon. 'We're giving them the brand and the resources to make this happen.'

While this new Homeworld title is being created, Gearbox still intends to release high definition versions of the first two Homeworld games but will not be interfering too much with Blackbird's development process with Pitchford stating that Gearbox is 'not in the best spot to make a sci-fi RTS successor' right now.

During THQ's bankruptcy auctions, Blackbird Interactive did also try to bid on the Homeworld IP but was outbid by Gearbox.