Randy Pitchford

Randy Pitchford
Pitchford at E3 2015
Born	Randall Steward Pitchford II April 21, 1971 (1971-04-21) (age 53) Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.
Alma mater	University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation(s)	President and CEO of The Gearbox Entertainment Company, president of Gearbox Studios
Spouse	Kristy Junio
Children	1

Randall Steward Pitchford II (born April 21, 1971) is an American businessman. He co-founded the video game development studio Gearbox Software in 1999 and was president and CEO for the company until 2021, upon which he became CEO and president of Gearbox's parent company, The Gearbox Entertainment Company. In 2016, Pitchford became the owner of the Academy of Magical Arts publication Genii magazine. Pitchford purchased the Hollywood Magic Castle in April 2022.

Pitchford's father worked within the United States intelligence system, creating high-technology equipment for agents. When Randy was five years old, his father brought home one of the computers he had developed in 1975, and later gave Randy his own computer, built by himself, when Randy was seven.^[1] Pitchford learned BASIC to try to emulate arcade games of the time.^[1] He wrote his first game (a 16-room text adventure) when he was about 11 or 12 on the machine. Pitchford stated that he played Colossal Cave Adventure and was so enamored by the game that he used a hex editor to examine the code and figure out some of the programming concepts behind it.^[2]

After high school, Pitchford went to University of California, Los Angeles, where his future wife encouraged him to pursue a career in entertainment.^[1]

Pitchford's great uncle was Richard Valentine Pitchford, a British magician who performed under the stage name Cardini. Pitchford inherited many of Cardini's books and developed an interest in magic at a young age. The Magic Castle in Hollywood, California has an exhibit dedicated to Cardini, which contains props Pitchford donated to the Academy of Magical Arts for the display.^[3] While he proceeded to work on video games on the side, he continued to perform as a professional magician in Hollywood to help pay for school.

In 2016, Pitchford purchased Genii magazine, a publication for magic and magicians.^[4] He is a member of The Magic Castle in Los Angeles,^[1] and in April 2022, acquired The Magic Castle. Erika Larsen, daughter of the Magic Castle's founders, will operate the venue. The Academy of Magical Arts, of which Pitchford is a member, will remain a tenant.^[5]

Pitchford credits his career in entertainment to the Magic Castle. Magicians Penn Jillette and David Copperfield praised the sale of the Castle to Pitchford (who married his wife Kristy on stage at the Castle) saying "'Randy is a very special person as far as the castle is concerned ... he has the means and attitude to preserve its legacy.'"^[5]

Pitchford began his career at 3D Realms in Texas working on games such as Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior.^[1] A group of 3D Realms developers and programmers left the company to form Rebel Boat Rocker around 1997, and Pitchford joined them in May 1997. The company's first game was to be the first-person shooter Prax War to be published by Electronic Arts (EA). Pitchford served as the lead level designer as well as the public relations head. However, EA opted to cancel the game around January 1999.^[6][7] With no publisher-backed project, Pitchford joined four other Rebel Boat Rockers, some his former 3D Realms colleagues, to found Gearbox Software in February 1999.^[8]

Overall, Pitchford's credited titles have sold more than 100 million copies.^[9] Games he has overseen at Gearbox have included Borderlands,^[10] Bulletstorm,^[11] and Borderlands 3.^[12] As part of his leadership in Borderlands 3, he helped to bring a distributed computing puzzle game into Borderlands 3 that supported the American Gut Project to help with RNA sequencing in collaboration with researchers at McGill University and University of California San Diego.^[13]

Gearbox expanded out into publishing in 2015,^[14] and by 2019, The Gearbox Entertainment Company was established to be the parent company of both Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing. During this period, Pitchford remained the president of Gearbox Software.^[15] The Gearbox Entertainment Company was acquired by Embracer Group in February 2021 and incorporated in whole as one of the top-level divisions within Embracer.^[15] Following completion of the acquisition and the creating of Gearbox Studios, Pitchford left Gearbox Software to become president and CEO of The Gearbox Entertainment Company and president of Gearbox Studios.^[16]

Pitchford’s work in the video game industry expanded to film and television in 2021 when he became president of Gearbox Studios.^[17][18] Pitchford is the executive producer of the Borderlands film, releasing in 2024, and executive producer of the upcoming Brothers in Arms TV adaption.^[19][20] Pitchford also received executive producer credit on Adam Rifkin and Penn Jillette’s 2016 film Director's Cut.^[21]

In addition, Pitchford was cast as himself in the 2011 documentary, Ctrl+Alt+Compete, and in the 2014 documentary, Video Games: The Movie.^[22][23] Pitchford is also featured in the 2023 documentary FPS: First Person Shooter.^[24]

PAX East in 2022, Pitchford suggested a Duke Nukem film may be in the works, confirmed when Legendary Entertainment picked up the rights that same year.^[25][26]

Pitchford and Gearbox Entertainment worked with McGill University, Massively Multiplayer Online Science, and The Microsetta Initiative to add a mini-game “Borderlands Science” post-release April 2020, into Borderlands 3.^[27] The game presents puzzles formulated from DNA sequences from medical research studies into the human gut microbiome. According to a Mobi Health News article, the project “aims to build a higher-quality body of data that researchers could someday use to develop novel health or wellness treatments.”^[28]

In June 2020, Pitchford and Gearbox Entertainment announced a partnership with Direct Relief, a nonprofit humanitarian organization, to provide aid and supplies to medical workers responding to COVID-19.^[29] Players who donated to support the cause were provided an in-game Borderlands 3 face mask.^[29] In an interview with gaming blog PC Games, Pitchford stated, “This is an opportunity for us to use our platform for good and help those directly fighting the pandemic…we’re all inspired every day by the sacrifices that healthcare workers are making. So let’s have their backs while they are helping save lives.”^[30]

In a 2022 partnership with the Entertainment Software Association to raise scholarship funds for students following a gaming career, Pitchford auctioned off some of his apparel.^[31]

In April 2023, Pitchford founded Gearbox Gives, an initiative that houses Gearbox Entertainment Company’s philanthropic efforts, with a mission to harness the power of entertainment to educate, inspire, and create.^[32]

In a Dallas Innovates article about the initiative, Pitchford is quoted saying, “As Gearbox has grown in recent years, our impact on the world around us must grow as well. By launching Gearbox Gives, we’ll be able to build upon the work we have already done to use our platform for good.”^[32]

In 2016, Pitchford was a keynote speaker at the D.I.C.E. Summit and presented the opening conference keynote, alongside Penn Jillette.^[33]

In 2020, Pitchford was credited as the team lead on Borderlands 3, which won the People’s Voice 2020 Webby Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Game Design, and Best User Experience.^[34]

In 2021, Pitchford was recognized as Tech Titans Corporate CEO of the year, and the same year, Gearbox Entertainment Company was awarded the Tech Titans Corporate Innovation Award.^[35]

Other credits and nominations include Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, which was nominated for the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards, Outstanding Video Game, Borderlands Science (found in Borderlands 3) which was nominated for the 2022 Webby Awards, Best Public Service, Activism, and Social Impact Game, Borderlands 2 which was nominated for the 2013 BAFTA Award for Best Game, Online - Multiplayer.^[36][37][38]

In 2013, Pitchford pledged US$25,000 to Penn Jillette's crowdfunding campaign for the film Director's Cut.^[40] In March 2018, Pitchford announced he had joined the advisory board for Fig, a mixed investor/crowdfunding service for video game development.^[41]

In 2018, former Gearbox lawyer Wade Callender filed a lawsuit against Pitchford,^[42] that alleged that Pitchford had left a USB drive containing sensitive Gearbox information and "child pornography" at a Medieval Times in 2014.^[43][44] Pitchford clarified that the pornographic film on the USB drive was not child pornography and stated that he had saved the pornography for the purposes of studying a sexual act performed by the female actress that he claimed to be similar to a "magic trick."^[42][45] Gearbox filed a grievance with the State Bar of Texas against Callender for "filing a lawsuit that includes accusations that he knows to be untrue".^[43][44] Callender later provided documents that he claimed backed up his position.^[46] An August 2019 filing further alleged Pitchford and his employers of contempt.^[47] In October 2019, both sides announced that the lawsuit had been dropped, and a joint statement by the parties called the issue a misunderstanding, and further stated that Pitchford had been exonerated.^[48]

In May 2019, David Eddings, the voice actor of the Borderlands character Claptrap accused Pitchford of assault during the 2017 Game Developers Conference. According to Eddings, Pitchford physically shoved Eddings after mentioning to Pitchford that he had been told someone was attempting to buy Gearbox as well as mentioning the Callender lawsuit. Eddings was let go shortly after the event, which he states was why he did not voice Claptrap in Borderlands 3. Pitchford denied he assaulted Eddings, and Gearbox stated they took the matter seriously but made no further comment as it was a personal matter.^[49]

Pitchford is married to Kristy (née Junio) and has a son.^[50]