LogIn"I wish everything could be a hit, but that is not how it works."
Gearbox
The Borderlands movie was a disappointment both among film lovers and gamers, and the announcement of Borderlands 4 didn't save Gearbox's reputation much.
Risk of Rain 2 has recently received a DLC developed by Gearbox, called Seekers of the Storm, which crowned the list of Steam top sellers, and the company's CEO Randy Pitchford went to X/Twitter to share the happy news. Unfortunately, not everyone congratulated him on the achievement.
Despite the sales, Seekers of the Storm is a big negative mark on the Risk of Rain series, with only 21% of positive reviews at the moment due to a bunch of bugs. To make matters worse, some players thought Pitchford was taking credit from the original developer, Hopoo Games, and asked him to let the game be.
One X/Twitter user said they doubted Pitchford's judgment and "shot calling ability to do anything good" after the failure of the last 2 Borderlands games, in their opinion, and the movie. To this, the CEO replied by basically comparing himself to The Beatles:
"I’m going to keep making stuff. I wish everything could be a hit, but that is not how it works. The greatest musical act of all time, The Beatles, had a 25% hit rate. I’m sure every song they recorded was done with love and commitment to the art and belief in the quality of their work."
Players didn't appreciate such an ambitious comparison much. Pitchford also said creators need "fans the most to root them on so they are motivated to keep creating" when they have a miss. "I don’t know if I will ever make anything again that you like, but wouldn’t it be better for you to have that chance to decide than for artists to never create again after a marketplace miss?"
It doesn't look like this helped his case a lot. Gearbox is on thin ice now, especially since Take-Two bought it from Embracer earlier this year. The studio needs some good karma if it doesn't want to see new layoffs.
Hopefully, it will find a way to fix Seekers of the Storm's issues and improve its reputation with Borderlands 4.
Find Pitchford's post here and join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.