Gearbox turned down offer to develop Call of Duty game

[-Kev-]

Randy Pitchford, Gearbox boss, was approached to develop a Call of Duty game but turned it down because he "saw no real challenge." "It would [not] strengthen our reputation as a studio, it would not be really motivating for our team."

This is great news, he didn't sellout. COD is easy money, but he didn't care about that, he refuses to be part of such a monstrosity of a game.

Gearbox Software - Creators of Borderlands 1 and 2.

Jan 2013

In an interview with German site KGN, studio boss Randy Pitchford apparently revealed that the studio had been approached to develop a game in the dominant FPS series, but turned it down because he saw 'no real challenge' in taking the job.

During the interview, which the site stipulates took place "several months ago", Pitchford said that Gearbox only develops a game "when we can contribute to an existing brand something new - a kind of unique perspective and a new approach," (translations via Google Translate).

"But that was not the case here," he said.

Given the importance of the series to publisher Activision, and its continued dominance achieved by following a set formula each year, Pitchford went on to question the flexibility his studio would have been afforded when taking the reins of a new CoD game.

"You have to play by the rules of the series," he said. "You have to do what is expected of a Call of Duty. In this I see but no real challenge for us. It would [not] strengthen our reputation as a studio, it would not be really motivating for our team."

[-Kev-]

Respect them for that.

In other words, Randy said "We are not associating our company with such a piece of crap of a game."

[ßringer]

I never really understood why it's become so popular to hate on the COD series or it's players. Granted I've only ever played two of the games (the first two modern warfare games), but I found them pretty goddamn entertaining (online and offline) for the price that I paid for them.

I also never encountered the now infamous stereotypical COD fan (the raging 12 year old boy who continuously calls you gay) while playing online, either. Instead, I found mostly pretty relaxed 20-somethings who were only in search of a good frag fest.

On topic : Gearbox is an awesome company and Pitchford is intelligent enough to realize that his team wouldn't excel in a strictly monitored environment like that of a COD development cycle. Their team seems to thrive on creative (and humorous) input from pretty much every department, so it's no surprise that they turned down an opportunity to work on a franchise that's become infamous for being rigidly monitored.

[BEDROOM BULLY]

Call of Duty is a good series..

Nazi Zombies is great fun..

Online can be a good laugh as well..

I rarely ran into these kids.. if so can't you just mute them

I was upset by MW2 TO MW3 changes.. it was basically just reskin change maps slightly.. still it's a good laugh.

It's like the fifa series.. they churn them out every year with minor updates and people buy it.. I don't blame them for not changing it much. I won't buy the Black Ops ghost until i see if they have improved it quite a bit.. same as i wont be buying another Fifa..

But it doesn't make it a **** game.. it just makes it not worth 45£ new..

[ßringer]

Call of Duty is a good series..

Nazi Zombies is great fun..

Online can be a good laugh as well..

I rarely ran into these kids.. if so can't you just mute them

I was upset by MW2 TO MW3 changes.. it was basically just reskin change maps slightly.. still it's a good laugh.

It's like the fifa series.. they churn them out every year with minor updates and people buy it.. I don't blame them for not changing it much. I won't buy the Black Ops ghost until i see if they have improved it quite a bit.. same as i wont be buying another Fifa..

But it doesn't make it a **** game.. it just makes it not worth 45£ new..

Spoken like a rational human being.

If you don't like it, don't buy it. Nobody is forcing anybody to pay $60 for a reskinned version of last year's game. That's why I don't buy Madden games or wrestling games that often even though they're great multiplayer fun - They rarely change their core mechanics so it's not worth full price to me.

Price drops, FTW.

[Canelo Phresh]

A guilty pleasure of mine is the dynasty warriors series. I've bought all of them up to 7 then I found warriors orochi. I know they're not that good but I love hack and slash and 1000 body count in 10 minutes.

[ßringer]

A guilty pleasure of mine is the dynasty warriors series. I've bought all of them up to 7 then I found warriors orochi. I know they're not that good but I love hack and slash and 1000 body count in 10 minutes.

I've played quite a few of those and found them moderately engaging.

They're a perfect example of the "simplicity first" approach to gaming. Not everything has to be revolutionary or complex to be enjoyed.

Still, I found a lot of the maps to be fairly large for walking around on foot. Perhaps they added horses or some other method of quick transport into later releases? Walking around those maps looking for enemy armies to obliterate was brutal at times.

[bojangles1987]

Gearbox has their own popular franchise, and made war games for years beforehand. I can see why they wouldn't feel any motivation to return to war games.

[-Kev-]

Gearbox has their own popular franchise, and made war games for years beforehand. I can see why they wouldn't feel any motivation to return to war games.

He says "You have to do what is expected of a Call of Duty". Meaning he can't switch it up, there will be no creativity for Gearbox. It's not because he doesn't want to do war games anymore.

[-Kev-]

I never really understood why it's become so popular to hate on the COD series or it's players. Granted I've only ever played two of the games (the first two modern warfare games), but I found them pretty goddamn entertaining (online and offline) for the price that I paid for them.

I also never encountered the now infamous stereotypical COD fan (the raging 12 year old boy who continuously calls you gay) while playing online, either. Instead, I found mostly pretty relaxed 20-somethings who were only in search of a good frag fest.

On topic : Gearbox is an awesome company and Pitchford is intelligent enough to realize that his team wouldn't excel in a strictly monitored environment like that of a COD development cycle. Their team seems to thrive on creative (and humorous) input from pretty much every department, so it's no surprise that they turned down an opportunity to work on a franchise that's become infamous for being rigidly monitored.

Because it's a child's game. From my experience on who actually plays this game, the following picture depicts something real close to the actual truth.