When it comes to people like Randy Pitchford, you almost don’t want to know what they’ve been saying, because what they’ve been saying often is so facepalm-worthy that it makes you dread what they’ll do next. That might sound harsh, but when you consider what the Gearbox Software head has been saying since the team’s latest launch, you’ll know that he’s not exactly “keeping things reigned in.” Now, a special documentary about the launch of Borderlands 4 has dropped, and with it came an all-new quote for you to facepalm at. Specifically, he thinks that gaming hasn’t made its “Citizen Kane” yet.
For those who don’t get that reference, it refers to what many feel is the greatest movie of all time. It was so good that many hold it as the “bar” for making a legendary film. In the documentary, Randy said:
“The budgets of our big video games now are larger than the budgets of blockbuster movies. You can’t easily make that decision to commit those kinds of resources towards a thing. It can only happen if everybody in that loop believes that what is being imagined has more value to exist in the world than what it takes to create it, which means you both need the idea of what it takes to create it, the belief in what it takes to create it, and a sense of what it might be worth if it was created.”
Ironically, Randy Pitchford isn’t wrong about that first statement, as game budgets have been ballooning in the last several years, and as a result, companies have done things to try and “recoup costs” that have arguably made the industry worse.
However, regarding the “best of the best” content, Pitchford noted:
“I love that we’re just getting started. We haven’t even had our Citizen Kane yet, let alone Jurassic Park or Star Wars. We’re just figuring this shit out. But it’s fun.”
That’s where we’re going to draw the line, because you could easily make the case for all three of those titles in the gaming space. Many would point to a certain game from Naughty Dog as the “best video game story ever written,” which is why it was made into a live-action TV series whose first season was nominated for NUMEROUS Emmys.
BioWare has a trilogy that easily compares to the Lucasfilm saga, and several games out there have the “awe and wonder” of the Steven Spielberg dinosaur classic.
So, let’s just chalk things up to this being a case of “Randy being Randy” and move on.
