EG interview w/ Randy Pitchford - he's at it again

Everytime Randy spills more and more Bullshit he reminds me of this picture I once saw (in spanish)

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(You know that inner voice that says things like "shut up already, you're srewing it up"? Well, instead of that voice, some people have an unicorn that goes WEEEEEEEEE)
 
GavinUK86 said:
The problem is, Randy Pitchford will continue to piss in everyone's face and tell them it's raining because he knows damn well everyone will buy Borderlands 3. Battleborn looks shit and might flop but you can bet your ass when they announce the new Borderlands everyone will go fucking crazy and preorder it so he's never going to learn his lesson. He'll just carry on being the smarmy git that he is.
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Whatever. As I long as I get Borderlands 3. I am not going to refrain from something I desperately want just so I can help reform a person I couldn't give two shits about.
 
Randy Pitchford: I probably lost somewhere between maybe $10-$15m on Aliens, whereas I made a ridiculous amount of money on Borderlands.
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And this is all you need to know about the guy. He probably didn't write a single line of code or design/create a single piece of art, yet his response to questions about sales are about how much *he* made or lost, not "we". What an ass.
 
If he was to admit that A:CM was NOT like it was originally shown and that things did change, could that put them in potential legal trouble? Not trying to defend him in any way, just trying to see what the motivation could be other than just being an ass with the typical PR spin.
 
He has a rep for being a liar now, he's never gonna shake that off.

I'm usually never arsed with taking a stand, but I won't be buying anymore of their games. Which is annoying as I love Borderlands.
 
I thought he got the hint already :l; if you aren't going to own up to your mistakes and almost thievery with Aliens:CM, then shut up about the game and focus on your current projects then.

But, instead, he just keeps on digging a bigger hole for himself by refusing to own up to his mistakes. If he just said something like this:

"I just want to tell Aliens fans and people who brought our product that we are sorry that it didn't meet your expectations. The games development went through unexpected difficulties and that was why we had to get another studio on board to help us complete the project. The end product is not a quality Gearbox product like you see with our Borderlands series, and that is a dishonor on our company name. We promise in the future to present games that match the reality of the final product and to make sure our games meet a high quality standard. Thank you for your time."

People would be like "Oh, so he is a human being after all...... Okay, it sucks what they pulled with Aliens, but I can support their future projects if his word means something in the future." But he isn't doing that, leading to everyone viewing him as someone who doesn't care about the consumer; only cares about the money he makes.
 
"Typically, it doesn't matter what the game is, the usual ratio is about three love letters for every one hate letter," Randy continues. "The scale's different. Volume relates to impact. So Borderlands, we get a lot more mail than, say, Brothers in Arms. But it's usually about 3:1 positive to negative."

Even for Aliens?

Even for Aliens, Randy says.
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Kadin said:
If he was to admit that A:CM was NOT like it was originally shown and that things did change, could that put them in potential legal trouble? Not trying to defend him in any way, just trying to see what the motivation could be other than just being an ass with the typical PR spin.
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No the only legal liability was around deceptive marketing which the contract between Sega and Gearbox said was Sega's responsibility. Despite Randy happily talking up a project a blind man could see was not being honestly represented by the marketing materials available Randy dodged legal liability because of that clause. That's what's behind this current run of Randy giving interviews being an arse, his lawyers established he had no legal liability and he regards that as being the same thing as being blameless.

If he was to come out and say 'It wasn't as good as was being shown, I should have spoke up/stopped bigging up the game' it would not result in any additional legal liabilities. If he got into the thicket of the relationship between Sega, TimeGate and Gearbox then yeah that could open a legal can of worms depending on the terms of those contracts.
 
Wolfgunblood Garopa said:
Who's going in neutral? People who don't know what's going on or who aren't interested in games?
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Me? I didn't buy A:CM and I was never sucked into the hype about it in the first place.

I'm not angry, and I was never disappointed, so I don't have an axe to grind against Pitchford or Gearbox. In fact I don't believe I've ever bought a Gearbox developed product in my life, although I am aware of the popularity of the Borderlands franchise.

I'm kinda sat on the sidelines faintly bemused by the whole thing. It seems to me people are driving themselves into apoplexy waiting for an apology they pretty obviously aren't going to get at this point.

Moreover as a former developer I'm pretty clued-up on how development works, where, when, and why vertical slice demoes are made, the division of responsibilities between publisher and developer, and most of all an understanding of how unpredictably changeable the process is.

As such I feel comfortable pointing out that, to me, much of the criticism aimed at Pitchford seems to come from a place of emotion, rather than reason.
 
JaseC said:
I wonder if he actually believes the story he invented about how Gearbox got its name. I'd completely forgotten about the article until someone brought it up in the previous Pitchford thread; it's still amusing.
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I never read that before but wow, that's pretty crazy. I have to admit that when I see him talk during interviews, he seems pretty cool. But all these types of stories continue to paint a completely different picture...
 
This guy is really ready to die on the hill of Colonial Marines, huh? Go on then Randy.
 
Clear said:
Moreover as a former developer I'm pretty clued-up on how development works, where, when, and why vertical slice demoes are made, the division of responsibilities between publisher and developer, and most of all an understanding of how unpredictably changeable the process is.

As such I feel comfortable pointing out that, to me, much of the criticism aimed at Pitchford seems to come from a place of emotion, rather than reason.
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I think most anybody interested in dev knows what 'vertical slices' are, we know what E3 demos are (Killzone 2 woke everyone up to that a long time ago), what I didn't expect was for someone who has repeatedly stated their own passion and commitment to a project to just up and abandon it.

You seem to be trying to set up a 'Of course politicians lie, you shouldn't be mad at that' argument here, are you saying we should just let devs slide when they lie as egregiously as Pitchford did? It's not like it was beyond Sega, Gearbox or Timegate to produce honest marketing materials; Timegate is gone, Sega have acknowledged they screwed up but Pitchford proclaims that the game was good and everyone else is wrong. Are you telling me you're fine with that?
 
Man, it irks me how he always says "I" instead of "we," like it's his fucking money that was lost on Aliens and Borderlands was a successful game that he personally made.
 
Okay, someone's got to help me with that first quote. It's a joke, right? He can't possibly be so lacking in self-awareness that he seriously expects a list of metrics by which Aliens is worse than Borderlands is supposed to convince us that it's not worse than Borderlands.

I can't help imagining an eight-year-old Randy:

"In the case of your math test, you must accept you failed. Surely you accept that."
"It depends on what criteria you're using to define failure. I didn't get passing grade in the test. I'm not getting a passing grade in the course. It wasn't even close. And I wasn't able to answer all the questions."
 
Shadow_FFVI said:
Jim Sterling and Rock, Papper, Shotgun should do a two on one interview with him.
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Simultaneously. Make it simultaneously.

I didn't even buy CM, but I don't see what the hell is so hard about just being honest. Who's it going to hurt? It won't hurt Pitchford; he apparently can wipe his tears away with money if it got that bad. Part of me thinks he CAN'T be this obtuse, but evidence suggests otherwise... :|
 
Clear said:
Me? I didn't buy A:CM and I was never sucked into the hype about it in the first place.

I'm not angry, and I was never disappointed, so I don't have an axe to grind against Pitchford or Gearbox. In fact I don't believe I've ever bought a Gearbox developed product in my life, although I am aware of the popularity of the Borderlands franchise.

I'm kinda sat on the sidelines faintly bemused by the whole thing. It seems to me people are driving themselves into apoplexy waiting for an apology they pretty obviously aren't going to get at this point.

Moreover as a former developer I'm pretty clued-up on how development works, where, when, and why vertical slice demoes are made, the division of responsibilities between publisher and developer, and most of all an understanding of how unpredictably changeable the process is.

As such I feel comfortable pointing out that, to me, much of the criticism aimed at Pitchford seems to come from a place of emotion, rather than reason.
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Exactly. You haven't been paying attention, so you don't know what's going on.
 
Clear said:
Me? I didn't buy A:CM and I was never sucked into the hype about it in the first place.

I'm not angry, and I was never disappointed, so I don't have an axe to grind against Pitchford or Gearbox. In fact I don't believe I've ever bought a Gearbox developed product in my life, although I am aware of the popularity of the Borderlands franchise.

I'm kinda sat on the sidelines faintly bemused by the whole thing. It seems to me people are driving themselves into apoplexy waiting for an apology they pretty obviously aren't going to get at this point.

Moreover as a former developer I'm pretty clued-up on how development works, where, when, and why vertical slice demoes are made, the division of responsibilities between publisher and developer, and most of all an understanding of how unpredictably changeable the process is.

As such I feel comfortable pointing out that, to me, much of the criticism aimed at Pitchford seems to come from a place of emotion, rather than reason.
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Most of us here know how verticle slice demos work. Something something, "this is NeoGAF.gif".

Just because Randy and Gearbox are not the only ones to practice these kind of smokescreen practices (which is absolutely what is when they present it to the public as actual game footage) doesn't make it acceptable.

Personally, I knew Aliens was probably going to be a shit pile because of the rumblings I was hearing before the game came out. And just how the game was being handled in the week's leading up to release, that kind of stuff can be pretty indicative of a game's quality if you know what to look for. But not everyone is an industry enthusiast or a developer. They outright pulled the wool over the eyes of the general audience. The product consumers bought was not what was promised. To write that off as "well, that's just how this business works" really doesn't cut it.

Randy doesn't need to apologize, he just needs to stop being so condescending when the subject is brought up, especially to the consumers who are buying his games. It's shitty. There's no excuse.
 
Lalalandia said:
You seem to be trying to set up a 'Of course politicians lie, you shouldn't be mad at that' argument here, are you saying we should just let devs slide when they lie as egregiously as Pitchford did? It's not like it was beyond Sega, Gearbox or Timegate to produce honest marketing materials; Timegate is gone, Sega have acknowledged they screwed up but Pitchford proclaims that the game was good and everyone else is wrong. Are you telling me you're fine with that?
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I'm honestly not trying to set anything up, I'm just going to restate what I've said in the past on this matter:

If you aren't happy with the product, blame the guys who sold it to you. Which is in gaming -without exception- the publisher. They have the right of veto at every stage of the process both in development and marketing, and if they aren't looking out for the interests of their audience, what the dev wants or believes is kinda irrelevant.

As to what Pitchford "believes", look I've worked in the business long enough to know exactly how subjective the developers perspective is. You look at hundreds of different builds over the course of years and trust me, you are intimately aware of every fault, but at the same time you can also be very happy with a thing that other people don't like because you have inadvertently tailored it to your precise taste.

I'd also add that builds made for promotional purposes are often the thing you want to just get out the door and forget as soon as possible. As generally they are an unwanted distraction that keeps you from finishing your next milestone.

Long story short, its a different perspective, but a valid one. And as such it would be just as remiss to dismiss it out of hand, as that of a paying customer.
 
No matter how many interviews Pitchford has, no matter how much of a pathological/habitual liar he may be, his stance is going to remain the same. "It's not that bad". And really, when compared to Big Rigs and Bubsy 3D, I suppose it isn't.

However, his responses are most definitely PR-related. Randy might be CEO of Gearbox, but talking down about a product they spent clearly WAY too much money on... well, it doesn't look great for the company as a whole. What he doesn't see, however, is how much damage his transparency is causing to the Gearbox name in general.

What needs to happen: Randy needs to be direct and straightforward about Colonial Marines. That's it. Be honest, drop the bullshit, ignore PR/HR/whoever, and just say it "Things didn't work out like we had wanted. We're sorry". Not "I'm", but "We're" - Randy's having a tough time realizing that game development is team-based.

Naturally, the game industry is at a point where that kind of honesty and integrity isn't valued amongst the buyers - Borderlands 3 is going to sell millions whenever it drops, despite any of this situation. Randy will make millions more, and the obtuse responses will continue.
 
CaviarMeths said:
Man, it irks me how he always says "I" instead of "we," like it's his fucking money that was lost on Aliens and Borderlands was a successful game that he personally made.
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Maybe it is his money. Maybe he has millions of dollars from coke dealing that he can pump into his games. Maybe he's actually the poor man's Stefan Eriksson.
 
Clear said:
Me? I didn't buy A:CM and I was never sucked into the hype about it in the first place.

I'm not angry, and I was never disappointed, so I don't have an axe to grind against Pitchford or Gearbox. In fact I don't believe I've ever bought a Gearbox developed product in my life, although I am aware of the popularity of the Borderlands franchise.

I'm kinda sat on the sidelines faintly bemused by the whole thing. It seems to me people are driving themselves into apoplexy waiting for an apology they pretty obviously aren't going to get at this point.

Moreover as a former developer I'm pretty clued-up on how development works, where, when, and why vertical slice demoes are made, the division of responsibilities between publisher and developer, and most of all an understanding of how unpredictably changeable the process is.

As such I feel comfortable pointing out that, to me, much of the criticism aimed at Pitchford seems to come from a place of emotion, rather than reason.
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You didn't buy ACM and yet claim the criticism toward Randy is based on emotion and not reason?

Jog on son.
 
I feel bad for all the talented people who work under this incompetent boob.

They really shouldn't be punished for his hubris but I'm sure these shenanigans are costing his company business.
 
EVA UNIT 01 said:
Ive never been put in a moral quandry by a devs figurehead before.
I love borderlands and wanted BL3 for a while now, but I just want nothing to do with this man anymore and do not want to contribute to his jackassery
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I hope you realized that a single, outspoken and clearly delusional individual doesn't represent every other individual at Gearbox (or any game developer/publisher for that matter). Also, think about how many other Pitchfords there almost certainly are working at some of your favorite developer studios that are simply not outspoken, so you never really know what's going on behind the scenes.

This is just some seriously wonky PR, but I don't really see why it should affect someone's future purchase of a game. If the game is good, buy it. If it's not, then don't. Shouldn't matter what some asshat says in the meantime.
 
Am I the only one really getting pissed off by his attitude regarding this? As in genuinely getting pissed off and thinking wtf is wrong with this guy, he needs to sort his attitude out?

Absolutely no scruples on him. And I thought Pessino was bad; this takes the cake.

Show some humility ffs.
 
Miles Quaritch said:
You didn't buy ACM and yet claim the criticism toward Randy is based on emotion and not reason?

Jog on son.
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Its been very hard to avoid the shitstorm on the internet about it, so I think I'm as aware of the issues as I need to be.

Same deal as me being perfectly aware of how demented Gamergate was, despite not having a twitter account or being on 4chan or Reddit.
 
Clear said:
Its been very hard to avoid the shitstorm on the internet about it, so I think I'm as aware of the issues as I need to be.
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You're aware of the fallout and the backlast, the fact that you didn't follow the game prior to launch and just after release doesn't really make you fully aware of the issues.

You're getting half the picture and that's never a good place to try and defend or suggest any criticism levelled toward someone is unjustified and is purely emotional.
 
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