Gearbox software

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Gearbox software

logo
legal form LLC
founding January 1999
Seat Frisco (Texas) , USA
management Randy Pitchford
Branch Software development
Website www.gearboxsoftware.com

Gearbox Software LLC (gearbox, . English literally gear box or transmission ) is an American computer game - development company based in Frisco , Texas . It was founded in January 1999 by several experienced game designers (including Randy Pitchford) in Dallas .

Company history

After it was founded, the company first developed games for Valve ( Half-Life: Opposing Force , Half-Life: Blue Shift ). They later took on ports ( Half-Life for PlayStation 2 , Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PC , James Bond 007: NightFire for PC, Halo: Fight for the Future for PC and Macintosh) for other companies.

As the first game, the development studio worked on the tactical first-person shooter Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 , which is set in World War II. Publisher Ubisoft released the game in spring 2005. The successor Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood appeared around seven months later and has new single player missions, improved artificial intelligence , more tactical depth and EAX 4.0 support. Because of the marginal improvements, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood was also jokingly called "Brothers in Arms 1.5" by players. The third part of the Brothers-in-Arms series is called Hell's Highway , was developed for Xbox 360 , PlayStation 3 and the PC and released in autumn 2008. The Unreal Engine 3 was used as the graphic framework . Adjustments were necessary for the German market.

Gearbox has been producing Aliens: Colonial Marines , a first-person shooter based on the Alien films , for Sega since 2006 . Furthermore, at the end of October 2009, the game Borderlands was published, which was developed for 2K Games . This is a post-apocalyptic shooter that has been provided with numerous RPG elements. Borderlands has a cel-shaded look and was able to convince critics and players.

On September 3, 2010 Gearbox Software announced on its Twitter account that it had taken over the development work on Duke Nukem Forever . The game had previously been developed by 3D Realms for twelve years , but the studio finally failed on May 6, 2009 due to financial reasons. The game was released in June 2011 after 14 years of development, but failed to meet the expectations of fans and critics. In September 2012 Borderlands 2 was released, which received mostly very good reviews and is the highest rated game of the studio on Metacritic . In February 2013, after several years of development, Aliens: Colonial Marines was released, which was rated negatively and became Gearbox's worst rated title. The main criticism was the graphics, which were significantly weaker than in the preview versions that were presented at E3 . As a result, Gearbox and publisher Sega were sued in California for misleading advertising . In autumn 2014 Gearbox published the Borderlands 2 spinoff The PreSequel together with 2K Australia .

Things got quieter around the Furious 4 project , which was originally announced in 2011 as a spin-off to the Brothers-in-Arms series . In July 2015, Pitchford announced that Furious 4 had been discontinued. In addition to the Brothers-in-Arms range , Gearbox also wants to expand the Duke Nukem brand and is looking for a partner for development, but no new offshoots have been announced yet. In 2016, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Duke Nukem 3D , Gearbox released the extended new edition 20th Anniversary World Tour for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 .

After the bankruptcy and subsequent breakup of THQ , Gearbox took over the rights to the real-time strategy series Homeworld after an auction on April 15, 2013 for 1.35 million US dollars . Gearbox then announced HD new editions of the games, which appeared in February 2015 via digital distribution channels and as extensive collector's editions. Ubisoft took over the distribution .

In July 2014 Gearbox announced Battleborn, a new brand that combines the MOBA genre popular in e-sports with that of the first-person shooter . The story of the team-based shooter is about protecting the last planet that still exists. At the beginning you can choose from five heroes and unlock a previously unknown number of other characters. The game was released in May 2016 via 2K Games. After the sales and player numbers fell short of expectations, Gearbox announced in September 2017 that it would no longer offer content and updates for Battleborn .

Since April 2016 it has been confirmed several times that Gearbox Software is working on a new Borderlands . The sequel has not yet been officially announced. In February 2018, publisher 2K Games indicated a release in the 2018/19 fiscal year.

In addition to another Borderlands spin-off, Gearbox is also working on a new part of the Brothers-in-Arms range . The development was announced at E3 2017.

In early 2019, the company attracted attention when it became known that studio director Randy Pitchford and longtime friend Wade Callender, Gearbox's former attorney, were suing each other. Gearbox accused Callender of embezzling company funds. Wade Callender, on the other hand, claimed that Pitchford had dumped a $ 12 million Borderlands bonus into his personal account and also lost a USB stick containing sensitive company information and child pornography in a restaurant. Gearbox denied the allegations against CEO Randy Pitchford as baseless and without legal basis. In October 2019 the lawsuits were withdrawn by both sides because they were "misunderstandings".

Gearbox Publishing

Since 2016, the company has also increasingly appeared as a publisher . The Gearbox Publishing label has so far published Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak , new editions of Duke Nukem 3D and Bulletstorm and took over the distribution of Fortnite and the indie games Hello Neighbor and We Happy Few . The upcoming Brothers in Arms spin-off is to appear on the in-house publishing label.

On August 30, 2019, the company, as the rights holder of the Homeworld license rights, indirectly announced the release date for the sequel to the Homeworld saga , which is considered the forefather of the 3D real-time strategy genre, via Twitter for the 4th quarter of 2022. Via the crowdfunding platform Fig , fans should be able to participate in the game's early development phase. The game developer Blackbird Interactive , whose founders were also involved in the original Homeworld games, is responsible for the actual implementation.

Published games

As a developer:

As a publisher:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Rudolf Syska: Duke Nukem Forever: And the King is coming. In: Golem.de . September 3, 2010, accessed August 22, 2013 .
  2. ↑ Gearbox Software's Profile on Metacritic , accessed on July 7, 2014 (English)
  3. ↑ Aliens: Colonial Marines - Gearbox and SEGA sued for misleading advertising on GameStar , accessed on July 7, 2014 (German)
  4. ↑ Tony Strobach: Brothers In Arms: Furious 4 - Becomes an independent brand. In: GameStar . September 3, 2012, accessed August 22, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Brothers in Arms - Furious 4 discontinued, concept for Battleborn adopted on GameStar , accessed August 5, 2015
  6. ↑ Duke Nukem - Gearbox seeks partners for next game on GameStar , accessed August 5, 2015
  7. ↑ Alexander Sliwinski: THQ auction results: Nordic Games takes Darksiders, Red Faction; 505 Games is Drawn to Life. In: Joystiq . AOL April 22, 2013; archived from the original on January 31, 2015 ; accessed on August 22, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Marco Kaiser: Battleborn - First Person DotA clone of the Borderlands makers. In: kaiserkiwi . July 9, 2014, accessed July 9, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Battleborn - Work on the Moba shooter finally stopped on gamona.de (accessed on February 21, 2018)
  10. ↑ Borderlands 3 is coming: Gearbox confirms development on de.ign.com (accessed on February 21, 2018)
  11. ↑ Borderlands 3: Gearbox Software is working on it on spieletipps.de (accessed on February 21, 2018)
  12. ↑ Borderlands 3: Take-Two indicates release in fiscal year 2018/2019 on playm.de (accessed on February 21, 2018)
  13. ↑ Brothers in Arms 4 - development confirmed, well-known hero returns on gamestar.de (accessed on February 21, 2018)
  14. ↑ Andreas Bertits: Gearbox: Complaints about fraud and porn between Pitchford and Wade Callender. In: PC Games . January 13, 2019, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Marcel Kleffmann: Gearbox: Mud battle between Pitchford and Callender over fraud and pornographic video material. In: 4Players . January 12, 2019, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Robin Rüther: Dirty lawsuit about Gearbox - Mutual fraud allegations between CEO and ex-studio lawyer. In: GameStar . January 14, 2019, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Benjamin Jakobs: Former Gearbox attorney raises serious allegations against Randy Pitchford. In: Eurogamer.de . January 14, 2019, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  18. ^ Brendan Sinclair: Gearbox and its former lawyer agree to drop lawsuits. In: gamesindustry.bz. October 3, 2019, accessed July 6, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Gearbox Publishing on gearboxpublishing.com
  20. ↑ Homeworld: Homeworld 3 is coming! Join us on Fig to get an inside look as it's created and have a meaningful impact on the game development. Learn more on https://www.fig.co/homeworld3 pic.twitter.com/3pfx5hHfN3. In: @HomeworldGame. August 30, 2019, accessed October 3, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Homeworld 3 (PC) - Release, News, System Requirements. Retrieved October 3, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Homeworld 3 Crowdfunding Campaign. Retrieved October 3, 2019 .