Gearbox is undergoing a bit of restructuring as the company starts to focus on more transmedia (movies, TV shows etc.) opportunities. Co-founder Randy Pitchford is stepping away from his role as President of its software division in order to focus on its new film and television branch Gearbox Studios. Pitchford is still going to be active at Gearbox as a whole, remaining CEO and President of Gearbox Entertainment—the umbrella under which all other Gearbox divisions report to. Former chief technology officer Steve Jones will now serve as President of Gearbox Software.
The structure now sees Gearbox Entertainment at the top (headed by Randy Pitchford), under which Gearbox Publishing, Gearbox Software, and Gearbox Studios (headed by Steve Gibson, Steve Jones, and Pitchford, respectively) are nested.
Congratulations to Steve Jones, who I have recently promoted to become President of Software at The Gearbox Entertainment Company. Attached is a diagram of the high level organization chart along with excerpts from my internal staff letter announcing the promotion. pic.twitter.com/4FeX94SIW2
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) October 6, 2021
Pitchford has been somewhat of a controversial figure when it comes to anything Gearbox, particularly when it comes to the Borderlands franchise. He has worked at Gearbox Software for over two decades, during which he was accused of embezzling 12 million dollars intended to be a bonus for the Borderlands development team (the suit was dismissed), assault towards Claptrap voice actor David Eddings, and lying about voice actor departures. He also thinks failed hero-shooter Battleborn “spearheaded the genre,” whatever that means. There’s also of course the now infamous Medieval Times/USB drive incident.
These Gearbox Entertainment leadership shuffles are primarily in order to focus on media projects in addition to AAA video games. In his announcement tweet, Pitchford explains that he will “continue wearing a creative hat with several creative touchpoints around the company.” Gearbox Entertainment doesn’t have an official Chief Creative Officer to avoid homogenizing their projects. He adds that “nothing will change” for those already working under him, but that his duty is “to be accountable and responsible for high level creative and business strategy.” Put simply, Pitchford will be focusing more on handling the business side of the company but will still be around to give creative input, which largely clocks with his overall role at Gearbox thus far.
Notably, Pitchford will be focusing on building up the business side and transmedia efforts of the new Gearbox Studios division, which is currently working on a live-action movie adaptation of Borderlands. With the recent acquisition by Embracer Group, Pitchford states that Gearbox Entertainment is “just getting started.” In addition to the “explosive transmedia business” at Gearbox Studios, Pitchford teases that there are multiple triple-A titles in development at Gearbox Software and “many more” in its greenlight pipeline.
