Hardware: Shipbreakers Scores Homeworld IP, Dev Help From Gearbox

Who says you can't go Home(world) again?

At the PAX Dev event last week, Blackbird Interactive struck a deal with Gearbox Software to officially rebrand Hardware: Shipbreakers as Homeworld: Shipbreakers. The uncommon sci-fi RTS is no longer just a "spiritual successor" to Homeworld but an actual successor.

"Hardware and Homeworld inevitably share much of the same DNA, and that's a good thing," said Blackbird CEO Rob Cunningham. "Homeworld was a fantastic game and we want to recapture that. But what we're offering with Hardware is really a different kind of RTS experience that isn't found in Homeworld or any other RTS."

As part of the deal, Blackbird will also receive financial and production support from Gearbox to help finish the game. Gearbox acquired the Homeworld license as part of THQ's bankruptcy sell-off back in May.

It will still probably be a while until Homeworld: Shipbreakers makes it onto your PC, but at least with help from a well-established company like Gearbox, it's got some solid backing that should help keep it from sliding into vaporware territory, as ambitious indie games all too often do.