gearbox-software posts

It's one of the most revered sci-fi movies of all time, and at one point developer Gearbox Software thought hard about making it into a game. The 1982 classic Blade Runner still holds up well and has been the subject of game adaptations before, most notably a 1997 released action-adventure game from the now defunct Westwood Studios.

On the Official Xbox Magazine web site, Gearbox's head man Randy Pitchford states that at one time Gearbox had pursued getting the Blade Runner game license rights, saying, "We chased it down and we could of had it." However, they decided to abandon their plans for the game after looking at the costs. Pitchford states, " . . . the way we wanted to do it, we wanted to spend 25-million dollars. And when you do the math on that, we weren't going to make it back." That's likely true, although we have to wonder what kind of game design would require such a high budget.

Borderlands has proven itself to be a sleeper hit for Gearbox Software and 2K Games even in the midst of higher profile title releases this fall. Soon fans of the first person shooter game will be able to purchase its official soundtrack. As they do for a number of games, Sumthing Else Music is handling the publishing duties for the Borderlands soundtrack when it comes out on December 8 in stores and via iTunes.

The soundtrack features a number of tunes from various composers including Jesper Kyd, Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Raison Varner, Tim Larkin. Unfortunately, the catchy song "Aint No Rest For The Wicked," which was featured in the game's trailer and TV commercials, is not included.

Gearbox Software hit first person shooter Borderlands has become the sleeper hit of the fall with lots of critical praise and evidence that the game itself is selling well. So how about a sequel? VG247.com posed that question to Gearbox's creative director Mike Neumann who stated, " So yeah, if everything makes sense, Borderlands 2 seems like a no-brainer to me."

That's not to say that the developer is currently working on such a sequel right now. Neumann states, "Obviously nothing so far is planned. We're working on DLC. We haven't really had any talks about a sequel, other than water cooler talk like, 'Wouldn't this be cool' kind of stuff." Neumann was also non-committal on whether on not we will ever see a Borderlands demo, saying, "Borderlands is just such an expansive game. So many things can happen at any time. It's really hard to truncate that down to some bite-sized, 'Here's why you should buy the game'' section."

It looks like PC owners of the Gearbox Software first person shooter Borderlands will have to wait an unknown amount of time to access the game's first downloadable expansion. The game's publisher 2K Games announced that the The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned expansion will be released on November 24 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. The Gearbox message boards have posted word from the game's community manager that " . . . this IS coming to the PC as well. No release date, but it was just confirmed for PC by 2K."

Just as a reminder, the expansion will give players a chance to "work alongside Dr. Ned as they embark on a quest to cure the inhabitants of Jakobs Cove." In this case "cure" likely means shooting up a lot of zombies.

Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford must be flying high on the critical and sales success of their first person shooter Borderlands. And he's not afraid to speak his mind on any number of subjects. A few weeks ago we reported that he made statements that were high critical of Valve, saying their ownership of the Steam download platform was a conflict of Interest and that smaller developers were being exploited. Smaller developers who have worked with Valve to get their games on Steam quickly defended Valve, saying their distribution terms were better than others.

Now Pitchford has reportedly taken a few more shots at Valve's expense. Industry Gamers reports that Pitchford, quoted in a new issue of the U.K.'s Official PlayStation Magazine, stated, "Valve think their own stuff is the only stuff that matters, to the point where they have their own distribution platform." While he does feel Steam itself is a good system he added, " . . . . at the same time they're reliant on the rest of the world. They had to do that [Left 4 Dead] deal with EA. When I see the L4D ad on the television I don't see a Valve logo, I see an EA logo, and when I bought it, I bought it at a store." It's pretty clear that Pitchford would like to see Steam be handled as a separate business with no connections to Valve.

Earlier this week we reported that the Steam version of Borderlands had accidentally allowed its Australian users access to a "low violence" of Gearbox Software's shooter game via a pre-load. Since the game hasn't been officially released this technically wasn't that big of an issue at the time

Games On Net now reports that publisher 2K Games has fixed the problem but there's a hitch. Those Australian players who want the full unedited version of the game must now delete what they downloaded before and then pre-load the title all over again. That means a file of 8 gigs must be downloaded. For folks who have an ISP in that country with a bandwidth cap that could mean some real trouble.

It looks like a few folks are dealing with a rather serious issue in Gearbox Software's just released shooter Borderlands. 1Up.com reports that all three versions of the game have a bug that can set back player's skill and weapons points back to zero while either joining or leaving a multiplayer match. This issue is apparently only affecting a few players at this point.

Gearbox is apparently aware of the problem and is working on a fix. A post on their message board states, "Unfortunately there isn't a fix just yet, but when one is available we hope to be able to repair as much of your character data as possible." In the meantime we would suggest just playing the game in single player if you don't want to risk losing your character progression.

Oh, Australia. You with your shrimp on the barbie, your Great Barrier Reef and your wonky government run game ratings system. However, the latest game screw-up in your country has nothing to do with your ratings system. However it does show that even digital downloads get things wrong.

Games On Net reports that Australian users of Steam were accidentally given a "low violence" version of Gearbox Software's just released shooter Borderlands for the game's pre-load installation. However the country's ratings board gave the go-ahead for the unedited version of the game to be released. Since the game isn't due to be released internationally for a few more days there's still time to correct the issue before Borderlands unlocks for Australian games. And having started to play the final and full version of Borderlands . . . well, trust us Australia; you really do want all the added violence.

Earlier this week we reported that a few people managed to purchase legit copies of the PC version of Borderlands. The problem is that the street date for Gearbox Software's FPS-RPG is supposed to be on Monday, October 26 and due to the game's DRM set up those folks who got early copies cannot play the game early. Even Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford told us there was nothing that could be done on his end to solve this issue.

Now a new post on the message boards of 2K Games from the publisher's community manager has the somewhat sad truth that there is nothing they can do either. According to the post, "Less than 1 (percent) of all copies were sold, and if we unlocked the game today, illegal versions would most likely appear on torrents by the evening. I am sure all of you want our PC launch to be as successful as possible, and we simply won't be able to manage that any earlier than already planned." So for those of you in the US "lucky" enough to get the game early, your copy will be available to play at midnight ET on Monday. International owners will have to wait until Friday, October 30.

When news hit that the PC version of Borderlands would have its release delayed six days after the console release, we figured the game wouldn't actually be in stores until that day. Not true. According to reports on Gearbox Software's message boards a handful of legit PC copies of the first person shooter have made their way to people. Unfortunately the game's DRM is keeping folks from playing the game until October 26.

A message on 2K Games' forums by the publisher's community manager states, "I'll let you know when I have more to tell you, but as of right now I'm looking in to things!." Big Download also contacted Gearbox head Randy Pitchford who told us,"I don't know if something can be done to unlock copies for people that somehow get a copy before the street date.. I certainly can't do anything about it, but I understand and am sympathetic to the frustration. I remember getting HL2 from Best Buy before street date and being *really* frustrated that I had the game in-my-hands, but that I wasn't going to be allowed to play for a few more days. I know how that feels. I'm sorry it's happening to customers of Borderlands and I wish there was something I could do about it."