Gearbox founders launch Studio Ricochet: a self-funded bet against high-burn AAA startups
Summary
Former Gearbox Studio Québec co-founders Sébastien Caisse and Pierre-André Déry have launched Studio Ricochet, a self-funded indie studio targeting premium co-op games for PC and console
The studio rejects publisher mandates, VC timelines, and live-service models as a direct counter to capitalized veteran-led studios that scaled before proving their concept
Leadership includes former Borderlands Creative Director Maxime Babin, former Gearbox Director of Creative Development Yanick Piché, and veterans from Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed
"Small senior team, low overhead, clear creative ownership, no external mandate. Prove the vision first, then grow around it."
01
Self-funding covers concept validation, not full production
Studio Ricochet launched without external capital as a deliberate structural choice
No publisher mandate, no investor timeline, no external pressure during the earliest creative phase
The team has sufficient funding to hit initial milestones and is in active conversations about medium-term financing
This sequencing inverts the model of veteran-led studios that burned through capital before locking a concept
02
Premium co-op fills a gap live-service dominates
Debut title is a co-op action-adventure for PC and console, explicitly buy-to-play with no GaaS component
"Coop action-adventure is well represented in the live-service model, but not so much at the premium end."
Reference titles named by leadership: Returnal, Uncharted, and It Takes Two
Creative benchmarks span Studio Ghibli, Denis Villeneuve, and FromSoftware
03
Founding team built the playbook around identified AAA-startup failure points
Déry diagnoses peer failures: studios at significant scale before fully proving the concept, with compressed creative timelines
Counter-design emphasizes fast decision-making, focused production, and pre-existing team trust
The founding team has shipped full-cycle at scale more than once
Caisse and Déry departed Gearbox in 2024 after its Take-Two acquisition triggered layoffs across both companies
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