Amidst legal battle, Gearbox CEO says he left USB stick of porn at Medieval Times [Update 2]

A pair of lawsuits filed in Collin County and Dallas County District Courts late last year came to light on Friday, each revolving around an apparently nasty dispute between the former general counsel of Gearbox Studios (makers of the Borderlands and Aliens: Colonial Marines game series) and its CEO, Randy Pitchford.

A November filing by Gearbox, uncovered by Kotaku's Jason Schreier, alleged that the company's former general counsel, Wade Callender, "exploit[ed] Gearbox’s generosity and trust for his own personal gain." Callender's own countersuit, filed in the same court one month later, went quite a bit further. Callender's suit alleges that Pitchford "breached his fiduciary duties by exploiting Gearbox employees and property to fund Pitchford’s private cravings," and one portion of the suit makes two sensational accusations about Pitchford's behavior: that he accidentally left a selection of "underage" pornography on a USB stick at a restaurant, and that he used his company's money to host parties where "adult men have reportedly exposed themselves to minors, to the amusement of Pitchford."

The allegations about a USB stick places its discovery at a 2014 Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament location in Dallas, down the road from Gearbox's Plano, Texas, headquarters. Callender alleges in the December suit that someone from the restaurant perused the USB stick's contents upon their discovery and then contacted the game studio so that its employees could recover it. "Pitchford declared that the thumb drive was his and requested its prompt return," Callender's suit states.

At this time, Callender and other Gearbox counsel were "mediating yet another case in which Pitchford's conduct was front and center: the Aliens: Colonial Marines class-action." Callender alleges that while he was out of town, he asked Gearbox staffers in Texas to "make a copy of the USB drive, to ensure that its contents could be verified and, if necessary, acted upon." Callender was unable to see these files, he alleges, because "Pitchford intervened by retrieving the lost USB drive himself and ordering Gearbox personnel to destroy the copy that Callender requested."

Citing "information and belief," Callender alleges that the USB stick in question contained "Randy Pitchford's personal collection of 'underage' pornography," in addition to "sensitive corporate documents of Gearbox and business partners like Take-Two Interactive, 2K Games, Sega, Microsoft, Sony, etc."

Additionally, Callender alleges that Pitchford "syphoned Gearbox profits to fund parties thrown by Pitchford and his wife." The suit describes these parties, known as "Peacock Parties," as gatherings where adult male guests "have reportedly exposed themselves to minors, to the amusement of Randy Pitchford."

David Eddings, a former Gearbox vice president (and voice of Borderlands character Clap-trap) up until 2017, took to Twitter after Kotaku's report went live with a vague, two-word post: "It's true." [Update, 1/12, 3:30 pm ET: Eddings added a follow-up comment on his Twitter account, which we have since embedded above. It uses green-check-mark emoji to clarify his stance on the lawsuit filed against Pitchford: "Liar? ✅Con-man? ✅Perv? No idea."]

Callender's suit does not confirm whether law enforcement was notified about these allegations of sexual exposure to minors or the possible presence of child pornography on a USB stick owned by Pitchford. Neither Callender's legal counsel nor Gearbox representatives responded to Ars' questions as of press time. However, Gearbox did offer a statement to Kotaku on Friday: "The allegations made by a disgruntled former employee are absurd, with no basis in reality or law. We look forward to addressing this meritless lawsuit in court and have no further comment at this time."

Representatives from the Dallas FBI did not immediately respond to questions about possible investigations regarding child pornography and Pitchford. The Frisco, Texas, police department said it had no investigations involving Pitchford at this time.

Randy’s rebuttal: The porn was a “magic trick”

Bizarrely enough, Pitchford corroborates some of the story's details by appearing on a podcast that went live one day after Callender's suit was filed. On the December 22 episode of The Piff Pod, Pitchford talks at length about porn that he enjoys watching, including "camgirl" pornography, in which a host exposes themself to a live feed and takes requests and financial tips from consumers. Pitchford explained that he was "a consumer of this content." He confirmed that he copied a specific video "to this memory stick" to, as he describes it, "work out the method" of how a camgirl host faked the act of female ejaculation. (Be warned: he describes how the video looks in particularly graphic detail.)

"I realized, this is not a sex worker," Pitchford said on the show. "This is a fucking magician." Pitchford, for those unaware, has a vested interest in the field of magicians and owns the magic-focused Genii Magazine.