Report: First Look at Unreleased Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Sequel and New Brothers in Arms
Gearbox’s former subsidiary, Lost Boys Interactive, had a tumultuous couple of years, but the studio is finally on its own two feet. Known for co-developing major games like Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, the developer saw a change in ownership after Take-Two Interactive acquired Gearbox in 2024, leaving Lost Boys behind with Embracer Group.
But that setup didn’t last long, as Lost Boys subsequently reached an agreement with Embracer last year to split off and return to its independent roots.
All of this movement didn’t come without a cost. The studio lost (no pun intended) several titles along the way, mostly due to canceled projects and pitches that never came to fruition. Among those missed opportunities were projects under Gearbox’s umbrella, which we’ll be exploring here.
A Look at Lost Boys Interactive & Gearbox’s Scrapped Titles
One of the biggest games Lost Boys was known to be co-developing was a sequel to Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. While the follow-up was never formally announced, its existence was hinted at multiple times after the first game exceeded commercial expectations. A 2023 incident further fueled rumors when a former Lost Boys developer listed the sequel on their online resume alongside other unreleased titles, including a new Brothers in Arms game.
Unfortunately for Borderlands fans, development on the next Tiny Tina entry has been far from smooth. In February 2024, reports surfaced that the title underwent a soft reboot amid Gearbox’s sale. This restructuring may explain why the project began being listed as “Unreleased/Unpublished” on developer portfolios, and why early screenshots have now appeared online.
Originating from the website of a former Lost Boys developer, these images showcase work on two separate projects from the studio labeled “Unreleased”, one of them being this sequel. While the current status of its development remains unknown, the way these assets have popped up suggests this iteration of the project was either canceled or fundamentally reworked.
The early pictures offer a glimpse of an unfinished coastal zone featuring the franchise’s signature cel-shaded art style. Environments reveal big set pieces, including a shipwreck surrounded by towering rock pillars, a giant dragon skeleton, and a cavernous area where players battle pirate-themed skeleton enemies.
UI details a mission titled “Soul Survivor,” which tasks players with traveling to a place called “Heroes’ Rest” and collecting energy from “The Trapped Souls.” While these elements mirror themes from the original game, most of the visual presentation relies on placeholder work intended just to capture a general feel, with reused weapons from the first game and explicit “ART IS NOT FINAL” watermarks.
A second portfolio provides another look at the game, this time focusing on models for two characters: a villager and a skeleton wearing an Evil Bunny suit for a planned boss fight, with a design that closely resembles Tiny Tina’s explosive Damsel Bunnies.
While the character models themselves are fairly standard, the accompanying captions are something far more interesting. The developer notes that the work was created for a “scrapped project,” adding further weight to the fact that LBI’s work on this early iteration of the sequel was ultimately discarded.
But as you have seen in the title of this article, the Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands sequel wasn’t the only potentially scrapped Gearbox project to appear in that initial developer portfolio. We also caught a fresh glimpse of the aforementioned Brothers in Arms game, which was apparently also in the hands of Lost Boys Interactive.
The project is described as a squad-based “Unreleased Tactical FPS.” While the name of the franchise isn’t explicitly dropped, it’s easy to put two and two together based on the available information.
When we first heard about this new Brothers in Arms entry, it was reported to be in development on Unreal Engine 4. Based on the following pictures, that seems to have been the case initially, though from what we could gather, the project shifted to Unreal Engine 5 at some point during development.
In these, we get a look at the title’s main menu, featuring soldiers gathered around a campfire. But predominantly, the images showcase dark, war-torn environments and buildings in a setting that clearly belongs to World War II, the staple era of the series.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time a look at this game has leaked. Last year, co-development team Frozen Lake Studios accidentally published assets connected to the title on its website before being removed.
Following the events of 2024, there has been no sign of this new Brothers in Arms. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to guess that the project was also caught up in the Gearbox and Embracer separation and has been shelved indefinitely, at least in its current iteration under Lost Boys Interactive.
It is truly fascinating to see the sheer amount of work that vanishes right under players’ noses, which is exactly why it is so interesting to learn that these two titles weren’t the only ones discarded at the studio.
Beyond its collaborations with Gearbox, Lost Boys Interactive had also been pitching other major concepts around 2024, including a Warhammer FPS and a colony simulator based on The Walking Dead. We will dive deeper into those unannounced projects in a future piece.
For now, at least we know there is still hope for a new Tiny Tina’s entry, even if it is now primarily helmed by Gearbox. Touching on the franchise’s potential, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford stated, “I feel like we’re just getting started there.”
