Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands was described by publisher Take-Two as having “exceeded expectations” which lead to developer Gearbox stating that is was “clearly a new franchise after shattering targets.” And yet despite this, a new report claims that the sequel has been cancelled.
The report comes from MP1ST who cites a “source who has knowledge of the situation.” According to this anonymous source, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2 was “cancelled in recent months”.
This information does lineup with the fact that the game’s developer, Lost Boys Interactive, was hit by layoffs in both January and September of this year. It’s not know how many staff were laid off in January, but we do know that in September 139 members of the team lost their jobs.
Those losses came due to still being part of the beleaguered Embracer group. Lost Boys Interactive was bought by Gearbox in 2022, which in turn had been purchased by Embracer in 2021. As part of its ongoing attempts to save itself from destruction, Embracer then sold Gearbox back to Take-Two earlier this year, but in a somewhat surprising move Lost Boys Interactive was not part of the deal and instead stayed with Embracer.
Thus the fate of a Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands sequel was already a little iffy. However, a mention in a developer profile indicated that a sequel was being made. Further proof came from a report by Kotaku in February of this year when news first began to break that Gearbox might be getting sold by Embracer. According to Kotaku, “a sequel to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands underwent a soft reboot,” but that the project was “promising and progressing very well.”
Gearbox does still own the rights to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, so while Lost Boys Interactive may not be working on it anymore, it’s still possible a sequel could come from Gearbox themselves. That would probably be a while down the line though, because Gearbox is obviously focusing on its recently revealed Borderlands 4.
Personally, I rather liked Tiny Tina”s Wonderlands. Hell, I actually ranked it as the 3rd best game in the franchise, so I’m a little sad we might not get a follow-up, although I’m not really sure it needs one. I’m more sorry for Lost Boys Interactive, because of this story is true then they’ve had a crazy few years, from the highs of launching the game to being bought by Gearbox, to the lows of being left behind at Embracer and suffering layoffs, and now potentially having their game cancelled.