Risk of Rain Returns Devs’ Hopoo Games Unable to Update Their Game Ever Since Take-Two Bought the IP and Shuttered Previous Publisher

Take-Two says that work on Risk of Rain Returns remains unaffected, while its developers, Hopoo Games, have stated otherwise as they no longer have the means to update the game they worked on. 

In March of this year, Take-Two announced that it was acquiring Gearbox Entertainment and its subsidiaries, Gearbox Software, Gearbox Publishing, Gearbox Studio, and Gearbox Properties from Embracer Group, which also included a handful of Gearbox’s IPs such as Borderlands, Duke Nukem, Risk of Rain (which was previously bought by Gearbox in 2022 from Hopoo Games), and many more. While this acquisition brought the hope that the company would be spared of any layoffs and closures, which was something that had been plaguing Embracer Group for the last year, Take-Two ended up shuttering Gearbox Publishing shortly after the acquisition.

Though Gearbox themselves had taken reigns over Risk of Rain 2 since the rights were bought out back in 2022, Hopoo Games, the series’ original developers, did have the opportunity to return to the IP last year with the release of Risk of Rain Returns, a remake of the original Risk of Rain. At the time, all seemed good with Hopoo Games and their return to the franchise, with the title receiving high praise from both fans and critics, including us. While the title didn’t have any roadmap of any kind for post-launch content, Hopoo Games did let the fanbase know that they were planning on updating the game to address bugs and such, as well as the potential (not a promise) for mod support.

However, with the acquisition of Gearbox Entertainment and the shuttering of Gearbox Publishing (the part of Gearbox Hopoo Games previously reported to), it seems that support for Risk of Rain Return has essentially “halted” in the sense that, while the studio wants to continue updating the game, it has no means to do so. Many in the community speculated the reasoning behind it, with one Risk of Rain fan who goes by the name of Creepz17 sharing on X that they spoke with one of the devs on Discord.

In the lengthy discussion shared on X, one of the reasons the game hasn’t gotten an update is because of the complication of its publisher no longer existing. While Take-Two now owns the IP and, therefore, is in charge of publishing, things aren’t as simple as just that. Dee, the developer Creepz17 spoke to, explains:

“We can make the update, but we do not have the practical means to submit it in any way due to our publisher just not being real anymore.” Dee further explains later, “Simply put, it’s in the name. The publisher publishes the game. Usually, the publisher handles all the hard parts of making a game publicly available; this means things like translating, advertisements, and sometimes funding, as well as the process of making the tested, translated versions of the game, get delivered to the companies that actually distribute it. In this case, something like Steam, and while a publisher isn’t always necessary, they’re definitely helpful in doing the work a dev might normally not be able to do– but it does mean that if your game was published by a publisher, it’s really hard to go re-publish it under a different visor. A lot of the adult swims games kinda went through this process when they were taken down as a part of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, with many of them having to take up under a separate publisher.”

Logically, one would think that Hopoo Games would have reached out to someone at Gearbox and Take-Two, which does seem to be the case from a few devs we spoke to ourselves, though one told us they’re still “looking for a path to updating the game.” 

We reached out to Take-Two last month on the matter, with a spokesperson responding with the following:

“The purchase of Gearbox Entertainment by Take-Two Interactive included the acquisition of the Risk of Rain IP, as well as the publishing rights to the franchise. 2K’s commitment to the title remains strong, and this transition has had no impact on development or mod support.”

Despite the statement saying the transition has had no impact on development, it’s clear from what the community has seen, or rather the lack of it, that there’s been an impact, as Risk of Rain Returns has not gotten a single update since then. 

However, to make things even more complicated, the team announced last month that many of its developers would work on developing games with Valve, another reason Dee mentioned why the game hasn’t gotten an update yet. Despite not everyone at Hopoo Games making the move to Valve, it does appear that the studio is taking a break until its members are fully back. That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty left who still want to continue updating Risk of Rain Returns, but for now, it seems they’re stuck between a hard place until Take-Two can decide whether they want to continue publishing support for the title. 

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