Gearbox has confirmed that it did have the winning bid in the final THQ IP auction that we were telling you about the other day. No one knew that Gearbox was even interested in the IP, but apparently the studio’s chief creative officer, Brian Martel, was a big fan of the franchise and led the company’s efforts in acquiring it.

Gearbox has confirmed that at this time there is no new announcement for a new game in the franchise, but it has confirmed that the first order of business will be to get Homeworld running on what the studio calls “today’s leading digital platforms.”

The bidding for Homeworld evidently involved several others, including the crowd-funded attempt to purchase the IP, as well as bids from Stardock and Paradox Interactive developer, Crusader Kings. We cannot confirm officially if Sega owner original developer Relic had a bid in for the game or not.

The purchase by Gearbox does present a puzzling IP addition for a studio that you would not think would be interested in the purchase of the IP of another studio. Gearbox isn’t known for RTS games and that alone will make the future of the franchise something many will be watching.