Gearbox CEO wants Bungie & Infinity Ward to move beyond established brands

by Xav de Matos on Jun 22nd 2009 6:15PM

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford wants Bungie and Infinity Ward to leave behind the Halo and Call of Duty/Modern Warfare brands and create something new. While he prefaced his comments by showering both devs with celestial praise, Pitchford said he is eagerly anticipating new intellectual properties from each team.

"I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that's not Halo," Pitchford told VideoGamer at E3. "Same with Infinity Ward. It's like, dude I'm totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven't seen before?"

Pitchford does admit it's difficult to walk away from established brands when the risk of creating a new IP is so high, but says innovators need to be rewarded so that teams "making big bets can take that risk."

Gearbox Software itself is no stranger to established brands. After porting Halo: Combat Evolved to PC in 2003, Gearbox developed the Brothers in Arms series, which has seen 10 titles released across 11 platforms since its debut in 2005. Gearbox is currently developing the new IP Borderlands, which is set to hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this fall.

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Tags: brothers-in-arms, bungie, call-of-duty, gearbox, gearbox-software, halo, infinity-ward, modern-warfare-2, randy-pitchford

Reader Comments (39)

Totally agree.

Now if either Nintendo or Square would do the same.

No, just they release something different more than often. Ex. would be The World Ends With You.

I concur as well, but I still think his comments were a bit contrived.

I can't agree with you more for Nintendo.

We've been seeing these characters since the 80's. Where are the new franchises Reggie mentioned at E3 of 2008? I want new characters to the Nintendo universe,not some Wii *insert name* garbage!

Enough milking the cow, new characters and IP's already!!!!!

The problem with both companies is that many of their fans are constantly clamoring for the next Zeldas, Final Fantasies, etc. and couldn't care less about your TWEWYs and such. I too love it when companies make new IP and wish they would do it more often, but the fact remains that they are less likely to sell than the old reliable franchises.

Well Activision has Infinity Ward by the balls, so they can't....and Bungie doesn't have the balls, so they won't.

Oh I have a feeling Bungie has the balls. They'll have a new IP soon enough.

But they have Halos.

...and that's all they have...

They'll pop up with a new Myth game out of nowhere and blow everyone's minds.

and Myth wouldn't be a new IP.

no, but it's been so long since a Myth it might as well be. Personally i just wish Bungie would fucking push that Peter Jackson thing out the door already! I need that shit! Halo has a fantastic story, but strangely, the games are kinda light on it

Them releasing a new Myth game is like Nintendo releasing a new Star Fox game: sure its new only because its been in limbo but not technically new.

He's competing with both companies. It's a little hard to take what he's saying as genuine. It's the kind of thing he could be encouraging just to give his own IPs some breathing room. That's a bit tinfoil hat I guess. Still hard to really listen to.

Honestly, that's the first thing I thought, too.

"Hey guys, mind throwing away your established brands to put our stuff on a level playing field?"

That said, he can also be seen as touting Gearbox's newest projects as being new IPs unlike the stuff found at Bungie or IW.

Either way, it's sort of a no-brainer comment to make, given the position Gearbox is in.

Maybe I'm naive, but I think people in the game industry generally want to see each other do well. They must know that the more quality titles that come out, the bigger they can grow the industry and prove that video games can be just as important and smart as movies.

These guys are still considered the bastard childs of the entertainment industry in the media (Just look at the news stories that were completely wrong and inaccurate about "controversial" game play in Mass Effect and GTA4).

It's the underdog mentality I bet that makes these guys root for each other to do well.

Ahahaha

Activision.

Original.

That'll happen.

COD 23: Futuristic Mars Warfare *Total Recall Edition* ?

idk about you but id fucking buy that

Ironically games such as those where created by a risk. That's why you take them.

It's a reasonable request. I'm not saying abandon your old titles but make new games along side them.

Whats with all the industry shit talk recently? All the crap racing game devs are giving each other, now this?

To use a baseball analogy, his comments are the equivalent of telling the New York Yankees to quit buying players, and develop your farm system. I'm guessing in the case of Infinity Ward, Bungie, and the Yankees, that's not happening anytime soon! LOL!

Funny, given that all Gearbox did for several years was churn out expansions, ports, and rehashes. And while Brothers in Arms was an original series, it was set in well-worn territory. Not exactly inspiring.

Borderlands may be the game that finally makes Gearbox a top-tier dev. I'm hoping like hell it'll be great.

really it's extremely hypocritical of him to say that when Halo has 5 games, CoD has 6 (not counting stuff like BR1 or Finest Hour) and Brother in Arms has fucking 11! I'd give the guy more credence as well if he could make a game that A) is good and b)isnt vaporware

If you look at it that way, IW has 4 by the end of this year, bungie has 5 by the end of next year. He was talking about the devs, not the series. He did not say "Treyarch, grey matter, and IW are awesome"

IDK Halo Reach and Halo ODST are good enough for me. I'm sure anything that Bungie makes is going to be top notch anyways, same for InfWard. But seriously Infward needs to move on. They are whoring CoD games way too much.

Halo #4 and #5 are good enough for me but IW's CoD #4 is whoring the games now. Why did you buy W@W? and if u didn't then u havent been playing a new cod game for a year and a half. even if you did buy W@W, the multiplayer felt like a mod, not a new game

Yes. Please making the shooters everyone plays so that someone will buy mine. K, thanks.

I think it is important to note that Gearbox also did Half-Life: Opposing Force which was totally awesome.

This guy better get his ass to work on Borderlands and make damn sure it isn't as mediocre as Hell's Highway was...

They can make Halo and CoD as long as they want as far as I'm concerned...as long as the games are good. And they have been so far...

Somebody tell that to the creators of Dynasty Warriors rofl

Originality! Exactly...like in the "Band of Brothers" game you make...I mean "Brothers in Arms"! :p

call of duty was not really a risk. the did a MoH game which was part of a franchise so all they had to do was make a game similar but better and market it as such and they had a winner. Even in 03 Activision was big enough to push their game. As for Bungie, all they had to do was let MS's money go to work. I personally would like to see a new IW IP come out in 2011 when it wont have to compete with Halo Reach

@Dark Wayne

Dude I totally agree with you! Where is the Peter Jackson/Halo project??!!

Well, yeah... ehr... Do this guy know almost ALL his studio is known by are their brothers in arms game and sequels ?

Sounds like he wants them to leave those franchises so him and his lot can get a job filling for them. No thanks. I'd rather a Dev make games they are good at them take a rick for no reason and fail. Plus after their brothers' in Arms BS hype, they can suck it. That game was not good overall.

Sounds like he wants them to leave those franchises so him and his lot can get a job filling for them. No thanks. I'd rather a Dev make games they are good at than take a risk for no reason and fail. Plus after their brothers' in Arms BS hype, they can suck it. That game was not good overall.

Sorry gunrunna but your point was completely missed by me. What are you trying to say? Can you clarify?

what a douchebag! If he had brands with the same selling power, you can bet that's all Gearbox would be making. F'n DOUCHE!

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Gearbox CEO wants Bungie & Infinity Ward to move beyond established brands

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