GearboxCEO Randy Pitchfordhas had more than his share of controversy in recent years and, this past week, some shady profit-sharing decisions by theBorderlands 3developer has caused an uproar among the company’s employees and also incited comments from Cory Barlog, director of 2018’s highly successfulGod of Warreboot.
A number of Gearbox employees anonymously shared that Pitchford hasreneged on promised revenue bonusesand greatly reduced the amount that the studio’s workers will receive. Barlog, in a Tweet that has since been deleted, stated that Gearbox’s actions were “a sh*tty thing to do to the actual people responsible for the things you make.”
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Other industry veterans echoed Barlog’s thoughts while Dan Lowe, another Santa Monica Studios developer, stressed the importance ofnegotiating proper salariesrather than relying on bonuses for income.
Gearbox is known for paying its employees wages that fall below average in the video game industry and, to make up for that, the company uses a profit-sharing model that divvies up 40 percent of a game’s royalties among the employees as quarterly bonuses. In the past, this has proven to be lucrative for employees and therefore an accepted form of recompense. The success ofBorderlands 2in 2012, for example, was sufficient to allow some Gearbox developers to purchase new homes.
In September 2019, series publisher 2K Games announced thatBorderlands 3had achieved unprecedented success, selling 50 percent more than its predecessor within the first five days of release and becoming the fastest selling title in 2K’s history. The franchise, according to the publisher, was a “billion-dollar global brand.”
Randy Pitchfordhad promised bonuses dependent onBorderlands 3hitting certain sales milestones. So the announcement by 2K caused employees to expect bonuses equaling or even surpassing those they had received forBorderlands 2, and many made financial plans based on that expectation. It came as a huge shock, therefore, when Pitchford informed them on March 31 that bonus checks would in fact be pretty small and would come nowhere near the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars employees had anticipated.
The reason for the discrepancy, according to Pitchford, was the increased cost of development forBorderlands 3and subsequent growth of the company, which inevitably ate into profits. Furthermore, sales projections had been far off the mark and, although the game had sold well, much of the revenue would cover only the budget for development ofBorderlands 3and its DLC. To add salt to the wound, Pitchford callously stated that any employee unhappy with the diminished bonus size was welcome to quit.
Since news of the broken promises came out and the resulting backlash, Pitchford, who is often detrimentally vocal on social media, has remained silent.
Borderlands 3released in September 2019 and is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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