‘Borderlands 3’ reveal tainted by Randy Pitchford’s ugly legal drama

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have my exciting new game reveal delivered with a side of icky legal drama.

Gearbox Software lifted the lid on Borderlands 3 during its (laggy) PAX East panel on Thursday, offering a first look at the long-awaited sequel in an extended, gameplay-packed trailer. It’s a montage of in-game action that runs for just under four minutes, and it’s all set to the rippling beats of a dubstep track.

Would a proper Borderlands fan expect any less?

What we see of Borderlands 3 doesn’t actually look all that different. There are new characters, “one billion” guns, and a varied lineup of vehicles, as well as clear confirmation that the game’s action splits up across multiple alien worlds. But the trailer doesn’t hint at any big changes in the game’s focus or gameplay systems.

That might be the point, to deliver the Borderlands you remember. But it’s surprising, at least to this longtime fan. 

The last Borderlands game — Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel — was released in 2014, and it wasn’t even developed by Gearbox, which created the series. This will be Gearbox’s first full Borderlands game since 2012, and it follows two notable commercial failures from the studio: Aliens: Colonial Marines and Battleborn.

All of which is to say: I think Gearbox should be coming out the gate here like it has something to prove. Borderlands and its sequel had a dramatic impact on a very particular flavor of RPG-heavy first-person shooters, but the landscape around those types of games has evolved considerably since 2014. 

No one’s expecting Borderlands 3 to be Destiny, but the “more of the same” vibe in this trailer is hard to shake. For a fan like me who has easily poured more than 1,000 hours into this series across all three games, I’m disappointed. There could be more reveals coming — and it’s a fact that some games simply don’t preview well — but the absence of anything truly new and shiny in this very first look is a bit of a shock.

Pitchford’s role in all of the legal drama makes him a questionable Gearbox hype man at this point in time.

That’s not the only problem, either. Back in January, we learned that Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford — who opened up the presentation and hyped the Borderlands 3 reveal at PAX East — is embroiled in a troubling legal situation. As Kotaku reported (CW, explained below), he’s facing a lawsuit alleging multiple contractual violations and it’s filled with sensational details, including what’s described as a secret $12 million payout from Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive.

The lawsuit, filed by former Gearbox employee and Pitchford business partner Wade Callender, is actually a countersuit. Gearbox sued Callender first in late 2018, alleging that he had failed to fully repay money he’d borrowed from the studio — and destroyed evidence of the loan agreement — and that he’d abused his company credit card.

On Callender’s side, the lawsuit describes an alleged $12 million “personal, secretive ‘Executive Bonus’” that was supposedly an advance against future profits. Callender’s lawyers argue that the money, which went to a Pitchford-owned interest, screwed over Gearbox because it’s $12 million less that the studio had for “funding the development of Borderlands.”

There’s also a separate allegation that Pitchford misplaced a USB drive containing sensitive business documents as well as “‘underage’ pornography,” which caused problems when someone outside the company found it. Pitchford addressed that allegation in a December podcast when he described the contents of the USB drive as “barely legal porn,” per Ars Technica.

(There’s quite a bit more detail than I’ve shared here, so check out the Kotaku and Ars stories if you still have questions. Though let’s put a sensitive content warning on the Kotaku post; Pitchford is quoted describing the pornographic material in detail.)

It’s a very messy legal situation that is still playing out even now — none of the allegations have been proven or disproven in court — but Pitchford’s role in all of it makes him a questionable Gearbox hype man at this point in time. 

The team of developers working on Borderlands 3 don’t deserve to be penalized for the alleged actions of one man, but having Pitchford on hand to unveil the new game is terrible optics, whether or not the allegations against him are true.