If you’re ever worried that video games aren’t diverse enough, aren’t challenging enough, aren’t fresh enough, or simply don’t take enough risks by trying new things in attempts to distinguish themselves from the rest of the thousands of titles, you may only have to wait for the next game from Gearbox Games.
As stated by CEO Randy Pitchford multiple times, he believes that games must embrace taking risks in order to move forward. Just being content with the formulaic shopping list of what makes a game, especially within a franchise, is certainly enough to bring fans back, but innovation has always been a core part of the video game industry.
Gearbox is no stranger to taking risks however, as they are known for creating one of the most innovative and successful combinations between the FPS and RPG genre, Borderlands. Pitchford said recently on the topic in an interview with GameIndustry International “I believe that not taking a risk is probably the biggest risk of all, so betting big just goes with the territory for AAA. We’ve had some financial disasters as well as incredible financial success in our past. We seem to be batting a thousand when we do original things, so there may be a bias there.”
Gearbox Games seems to heavily outweigh their disasters with success, at least from an outsider and consumer’s perspective as the quality of these risks shine through in almost every aspect of Borderlands and the promising new competitive shooter currently in development, Battleborn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaQK7HX2CXE
In a day and age of yearly releases, having innovation promised by CEOs is definitely an exciting thing.