News: Randy Pitchford was ‘terrified’ Borderlands would be a ‘disaster’

borderlands 1 -

borderlands 1 -

Borderlands 2 may be 2K’s most successful game of all time, but prior to the original game’s launch Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford was “terrified” that the game was going to be a “disaster”.

Speaking in the latest issue of EDGE, Pitchford admitted that he “was afraid Borderlands was going to be a disaster, frankly. All the Borderlands games have obviously been important for Gearbox, and they’ve been personally important to me.

“But Borderlands was the second original series that we created, and it was a struggle. I was terrified the whole way. And I still couldn’t quite believe it when the success kept rolling in – the tail was quite astounding on that game.”

Borderlands was first revealed in 2007 sporting a gritty, realistic look, before being re-revealed two years later with a lighter, cartoony look. The game eventually released in late 2009, selling over 2 million copies within its first two months on sale.

The game spawned two sequels, including 2012’s Borderlands 2 and 2014’s Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, plus an episodic series from Telltale, Tales From The Borderlands. Borderlands 2 is said to have passed 12 million sales, making it the “highest selling release in [the] history of 2K”.

“When we were originally trying to pitch Borderlands, it kind of felt how it feels now when we’re trying to talk about Battleborn,” Pitchford added, “which is like, ‘Dude, we think we’re on to something!’ But we can scream as loud as we want, and people are still skeptical: ‘We’ll believe it when we see it.’ Nobody really wanted to give us any attention for Borderlands, and it wasn’t until we launched the game and people got to play it for themselves and talk about it with their friends that it took off into such a big thing.”

Battleborn, Gearbox’s latest first-person shooter, is due to release in May 2016. A new Borderlands game for PS4 and Xbox One is also in development, although it has yet to be formally revealed.

Source: EDGE #288

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