GRTV: Randy Pitchford
On Aliens, Duke and much more.
We met up with Gearbox Software founder Randy Pitchford for an extensive talk on Duke Nukem, Aliens, Borderlands, Brothers in Arms and more. As usual Pitchford had lots to say on a variety of issues as the studio is keeping very busy.
On Borderlands 2 he had the following to say:
"If you liked Borderlands you're gonna love Borderlands 2. What's neat is we know what works so that's there, but in terms of the depth of the experience, the width of the experience, and the quality and production value of the experience and how big and how much of it there is it's a whole new level. I can't wait, I've been playing it an we're having so much fun."
On Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, that has been rumoured to have been cancelled he reiterated the following:
"Brother in Arms is very important to us, and the last time I mentioned something I think was at the Penny Arcade Expo, cause I wanted to make it clear, cause I think when we announced Furious 4 we kind of created some confusion, cause clearly that's a departure from what people remember of Brothers in Arms. At Penny Arcade Expo I made it very clear, that look we love the authentic Brothers in Arms experience, and we intend to continue the series with the characters and the authentic approach and we're going to do that. We haven't announced anything in that regard, but we've got that too.
But we're also really proud of some of the gameplay fun we're having with this other thing (Furious 4), and you know we'll see what that morphs into and when we're ready to talk about that again that will be fun. But right now our priority in terms of communication has been to talk about Borderlands 2 and Aliens: Colonial Marines."
As far as Duke Nukem Forever goes, Randy offered the following story:
"When it became public that 3D Realms was done. They were shutting the doors and laying off the development team that was a sad day. Especially for me, you know, because I had moved to Texas to join 3D Realms, to join the Duke Nukem 3D team back in 1995 and Duke Nukem 3D was the last commercial product, or you know, we made Shadow Warrior before I left and started Gearbox Software. But you know it had been 15 years that Alan and those guys had been working on Forever, while we had built all of Gearbox in that time and all the games we have done happened in that time. So it was really sad to hear that was the end and I think even those of us who were kind of standing on the sidelines laughing at that, it felt like an end of an era. I didn't like that, I felt that wasn't the right ending to the story."
On the future of Duke Nukem:
"When we acquired the brand we didn't do it just to make sure that Forever came out. The goal is... I want to create a Duke Nukem game. We haven't announced anything there yet. But I think our approach is going to be... It's gotta both have what you want from Duke, but we gotta also surprise and excite you. It's gotta be something that makes, not just people that love Duke, but other people go wow, I've gotta check this game out. And I think that's one of the secrets to Gearbox's success, we tend to find a way to do that when we build things. I look forward to that effort, and I look forward to telling people about it. Right now, we haven't announced anything for that yet, and I think it's really too early for me to... Of course, we've thought about it, of course there is something. But it would be irresponsible for me to create any expectations yet."
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