Randy Pitchford

Randy Pitchford is an American businessman. He co-founded video game development studio Gearbox Software in 1999, and serves as president and chief executive officer for the company.

Randy Pitchford
Occupation

Early life and education

Pitchford's father worked within the United States intelligence system, creating high-technology equipment for other agents. When Randy was five years old, his father brought home one of the computers he had developed in 1975, and later gave Randy his own computer, built by himself, when Randy was seven.[1] Pitchford learned the BASIC programming language to try to emulate arcade games of the time.[1] He wrote his first game (a 16-room text adventure) when he was about 11 or 12 on the machine. Pitchford stated that he played Colossal Cave Adventure and was so enamored by the game that he used a hex editor to examine the code and partially figured out some of the programming concepts behind it. When a BASIC version of the game was released, he was able to review the source code directly, allowing him to determine how to construct his own text adventures, leading him into game development.[2]

Pitchford was also interested in magic, as he was the great-nephew of Richard Valentine Pitchford, a magician known by his stage name Cardini. His grandfather died when Randy was only two years old, but the stories of Richard's magic performances told by his widow inspired Randy to pursue magic as well.[1]

After high school, Pitchford went to University of California, Los Angeles, where his future wife encouraged him to pursue a career in entertainment.[1] While he then proceeded to do video games on the side, he continued to perform as a professional magician in Hollywood to help pay for school. He is a member of The Magic Castle in Los Angeles.[1]

Career

Pitchford began his career at 3D Realms in Texas, at the time known as Apogee. He stated that part of the incentive for joining 3D Realms was that he would receive a share of the profits for the games he worked on.[1] Titles that Pitchford worked on include Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.[1]

A group of 3D Realms developers and programmers left the company to form Rebel Boat Rocker around 1997, and Pitchford left 3D Realms to join them by May 1997. The company's first game was to be the first-person shooter Prax War to be published by Electronic Arts (EA). Pitchford served as the lead level designer as well as the public relations head. However, EA opted to cancel the game around January 1999.[3][4] With no publisher-backed project, Pitchford joined four other Rebel Boat Rockers, some his former 3D Realms colleagues, to found Gearbox Software in February 1999. The name was selected to compare their team to an efficient and well-balanced transmission gearbox.[5]

Overall, Pitchford's credited titles have sold more than 100 million copies.[6] Games he has overseen at Gearbox have included Borderlands,[7] Bulletstorm,[8] and Borderlands 3.[9] In addition to his work as an executive and designer, Pitchford has provided public speeches on the subject of the gaming industry.[7]

Crowdfunding

In 2013, Pitchford received an executive producer credit on the film Director's Cut, as well as Penn Jillette's ponytail, for pledging US$25,000 to its crowdfunding campaign.[10] In March 2018, Pitchford announced he had joined the advisory board for Fig, a mixed investor/crowdfunding service for video game development.[11]

Game Credits
Game Year Role
Duke Nukem 3D 1996 Designer[12]
Duke Nukem 3D: Plutonium Pak 1996 Designer
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition 1996 Designer
Shadow Warrior 1997 Designer
Prey 1998 Designer
Half-Life: Opposing Force 1999 Producer, director, writer, designer
Half-Life: Blue Shift 2001 Producer, director, writer, designer[13]
Half-Life: Decay 2001 Producer
007: Nightfire 2002 Executive producer[14]
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 2002 Producer, director[15]
Halo: Combat Evolved 2003 Executive producer
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero 2004 Producer, designer
Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 2005 Executive producer, director
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood 2005 Executive producer
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway 2008 Executive producer
Samba de Amigo 2008 Executive producer
Borderlands 2009 Executive producer[16]
Borderlands: The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned 2009 Executive producer
Borderlands: Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot 2010 Executive producer
Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx 2010 Executive producer
Borderlands: Claptrap's New Robot Revolution 2010 Executive producer
Aliens: Infestation 2011 Executive producer
Duke Nukem Forever 2011 Executive producer[17]
Borderlands 2 2012 Executive producer
Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty 2012 Executive producer
Borderlands 2: Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage 2012 Executive producer
Borderlands 2: Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt 2013 Executive producer
Borderlands 2: Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep 2013 Executive producer
Aliens: Colonial Marines 2013 Executive producer
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! 2014 Executive producer
Tales From The Borderlands 2014 Executive producer
Homeworld: Remastered Collected 2015 Executive producer
Duke Nukem: 20th Anniversary World Tour 2016 Executive producer
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak 2016 Executive producer
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition 2017 Executive producer
Borderlands 2: Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary 2019 Executive producer
Borderlands 3 2019 Executive producer
Borderlands 3: Mad Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot 2019 Executive producer
Borderlands 3: Guns, Love, and Tentacles 2020 Executive producer

Filmography
Title Year Movie or TV Role
Director's Cut 2016 Movie Executive Producer[18]
Borderlands TBD Movie Executive Producer[19]
Brothers in Arms TBD TV Producer[20]

Lawsuit

In 2018, former Gearbox lawyer Wade Callender filed a lawsuit against Pitchford,[21] that alleged that Pitchford had left a USB drive containing sensitive Gearbox information and "child pornography" at a restaurant in 2014.[22][23] Pitchford stated that he had saved the pornography for the purposes of studying what he claimed to be a "magic trick" performed by the female actress.[21][24] Gearbox would file a grievance with the State Bar of Texas against Callender for "filing a lawsuit that includes accusations that he knows to be untrue".[22][23] Callender later provided documents that he claimed backed up his position.[25] An August 2019 filing further alleged Pitchford and his employers of contempt.[26] In October 2019, both sides announced that the lawsuit had been dropped, and a joint statement by the parties called the issue a misunderstanding, and further stated that Pitchford had been exonerated.[27]

gollark: Oh, and dependency management is horrific.
gollark: Also, yes, legacy junk.
gollark: In C++, *everything* is unsafe with no real way to stop that.
gollark: <@144182382692532224> C++ is overcomplicated, unsafe and undefinedbehaviory.
gollark: I was joking when I said "all decent games did", but it'd be cool.

References
  1. Serrels, Mark (May 22, 2012). "Randy Pitchford And The Perfect Shuffle". Kotaku Australia. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  2. Taylor, William (May 16, 2016). "Inspirational magic: Frisco video game creator Randy Pitchford loves illusions". Frisco Enterprise. Archived from the original on May 11, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  3. "Prax War Cancelled". IGN. January 28, 1999. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  4. Dunkin, Alan (April 27, 2000). "Rebel Boat Rocker's Boat Rocked". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
  5. Keefer, John (March 31, 2006). "GameSpy Retro: Developer Origins, Page 6 of 19". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  6. "GamesBeat Summit speakers: Randy Pitchford, Shannon Loftis, and Mitch Lasky". February 7, 2020.
  7. Tach, Dave (July 16, 2015). "You can't please sadists or that one guy who really hates Borderlands, Randy Pitchford says". Polygon.
  8. "Randy Pitchford Video Game Credits". MobyGames.
  9. Rosenberg, Adam. "'Borderlands 3' looks promising, but the needless CEO drama has got to go". Mashable.
  10. Plunkett, Luke (October 22, 2013). "Gearbox Boss Buys...Penn's Ponytail. For Real". Kotaku. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  11. Sinclair, Brendan (March 8, 2018). "Randy Pitchford joins Fig advisory board". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  12. Ewalt, David M. "Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford: Duke Nukem Needs A Happy Ending". Forbes. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  13. "Half-Life: Blue Shift Q&A". GameSpot. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  14. "Bond returns to the PC". GameSpot. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  15. "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 nears completion". GameSpot. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  16. Erbland, Kate (February 20, 2020). "'Borderlands': Filmmaker Eli Roth Takes Aim at First Video-Game Movie Adaptation". IndieWire. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  17. Castillo, Michelle (January 21, 2011). "Duke Nukem Has A Release Date And A SFW Trailer". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  18. Dussault, Jason (October 22, 2013). "'Borderlands' Developer CEO Buys Penn Jillette's Ponytail To Help Fund His Horror Movie With Adam Rifkin".
  19. McNary, Dave (February 20, 2020). "Eli Roth to Direct 'Borderlands' Movie for Lionsgate". Variety. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  20. "Brothers in Arms TV Show in the Works, Randy Pitchford Producing". Escapist Magazine. April 27, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  21. Fogel, Stefanie (January 11, 2019). "Former Gearbox Lawyer Accuses CEO of Lewd Behavior, Taking Secret $12M Bonus". Variety. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  22. Webb, Kevin (January 11, 2019). "A lawsuit accuses the CEO behind the blockbuster 'Borderlands' video games of lewd behavior and pocketing a secret $12 million bonus". Business Insider. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  23. Machkovech, Sam (January 11, 2019). "Amidst legal battle, Gearbox CEO says he left USB stick of porn at Medieval Times [Update 2]". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  24. Schreier, Jason (January 11, 2019). "Former Gearbox Lawyer Accuses CEO Randy Pitchford Of Taking Secret $12 Million Bonus In Lawsuit Gearbox Calls 'Absurd' [UPDATE]". Kotaku. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
  25. Futter, Mike (June 19, 2019). "Former Gearbox employee provides proof Randy Pitchford diverted funds to personal company". Yahoo! Finance. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  26. Wakeling, Richard (August 28, 2019). "Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford Accused Of Contempt In Latest Court Filing". GameSpot.
  27. Sinclair, Brendan (October 3, 2019). "Gearbox and its former lawyer agree to drop lawsuits". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
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