Look, when you’re part of a known entity, there are times when a certain individual within that entity becomes the “face” of the group. They’re the ones that everyone references when something about that entity happens, and they’re the ones who do all the interviews and publicity to get you hyped about what’s coming. That absolutely happens in the gaming space, with people like Randy Pitchford being one of the faces of groups like Gearbox Software. As the CEO, it makes sense that he would be the one to hype up his team’s games. Of course, he’s also the one who gets into trouble for talking a bit too much about things.
You all know what we’re talking about. During the release of Borderlands 4, Randy Pitchford went from the “you’re gonna love this game” guy who was merely hyping a title to the “if you don’t like it, just get a refund” guy, who was blasting players for not liking the game. It wasn’t the best look, if we’re being honest. Yet, despite everything, when Randy and the others at Gearbox Software went to PAX Australia, there was one thing that Randy noted that he was happy about. As revealed by 80.lv, he was thrilled that people weren’t blasting the new game’s story:
“Isn’t it weird to ship a game where the biggest complaint isn’t how we fu**ed up the story? We’re wondering, what is going [on?]. Everyone’s like, ‘Nah, story’s awesome, character’s awesome, we love it, gameplay’s great.’ And we’re like, ‘Ok, we’ll get technical. Cool, that’s cool.’ I’m happy to live in that world.”
To be fair, he’s only partially correct here. It’s also more accurate to say that more people were complaining about the optimization and “tech specs” for the game because that was affecting them a lot more than the story and characters were. It’s hard to try and enjoy a story when the game isn’t performing at peak performance consistently, you know?
As for the story statement, while many, including critics, agreed that the game’s narrative was an improvement over the last entry, there were still some complaints. The biggest one is that the franchise has been teasing a massive war involving the Vault Hunters, and then the new game ended with yet another teaser for that war. If you recall, the first teaser was made over a decade ago!
So, Randy, let’s hope it’s not another decade before the war actually happens.
