CEO and president of Gearbox Software Randy Pitchford uses Windows Phone 8, plays Minesweeper

By Daniel Rubino
published

File this under human interest story, but for those of you don’t game much, you may not know Randy Pitchford. He’s the very vocal and prominent face of Gearbox Software (www.gearboxsoftware.com), who is riding high on the success of its Borderlands 2 game (of which numerous writers here at Windows Phone Central are huge fans; Sam still sticks to Halo, sigh).

Recently, he appeared on the Nerdist podcast to discuss, well, gaming, but at the very end in a discussion of Minesweeper, Pitchford notes that he’s using a Windows Phone 8 device. He was slightly excited over the Achievements that you can get by playing Minesweeper and while he doesn’t go into detail, he seems pleased with his device (we’ll try to find out which Windows Phone exactly that he owns).

CEO and president of Gearbox Software Randy Pitchford

If you don’t follow Randy on Twitter (@DuvalMagic) and you play Borderlands 2, you probably should as he’s the oracle of Golden key Shift Codes, regularly tweeting them out.

Either way, as our tipster Karl C. notes, it's cool that one of the biggest names in video games has our phone. Indeed.

Source: Nerdist (Listen in at 1 hour, 23 minutes)

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

28 Comments
  • WTF Tebow!
  • Hahaha a much older version of tebow.
  • HOLY S**T! I'm a Borderlands fan! And Sam Sabri, give BL a shot! It's meant as a co-op game! And I am a Halo fan as well!
  • Not sure how you can compare the two games, but Halo FTW.
  • Now if we can get him to bring Borderlands Legends to Xbox Live for Windows Phone and Windows tablets.
  • Damn right!!!
  • One of the best co-op games ever in my opinion. Maybe they should make a Windows Phone game ;)
  • Brothers in Arms, damn fine game. Good choice Randy.
  • Sam I bleed Halo but Borderlands 2 is the bomb and you gotta try it. Hope you picked it up during the Xbox sale last week.
  • Anyone watching Under the Dome? Seems like every kid in that town has a 920.
  • Is it CBS? That would explain it.
     
    Every smartphone is a Lumia 920 and every tablet is a Surface, on nearly every show on CBS.
     
    I think Microsoft just kinda bought out CBS entirely.
  • Except for the Price is Right, everything on there is Apple, outside of the once a show Blackberry prize.
  • Yea, I have been watching it and noticed it... Kind of a dumb concept of a show. Dump a bunch of people in a fish bowl and watch them kill each other to survive.
    I will admit, I have not watched this week's episide yet tho...
  • After the crap job he did with Aliens Colonial Marines is his use of a Windows Phone something we want to tout?
  • Exactly
  • That's kind of unfair. Aliens was touched by multiple studios and programmers. While I agree it probably shouldn't have been released or at least released with a public disclaimer "this game is not good," gearbox itself makes great games. They also have an amazing amount of support and love for their fans/customers.
  • After aliens gearbox loses all credibility.. Srry Randy using wp8 isn't something to be proud of.. Gearbox isn't an AAA developer there more of a AA quality.
  • Disagree.
  • Agree. Gearbox lucked out with Borderlands. After ACM I can't believe a word from them.
  • Very happy to read this! Randy is a cool guy and Borderlands 2 is my favourite game of all time. I, sincerely, hope Gearbox considers bringing Borderlands Legends to Windows 8 and Windows Phone!
  • What device is ya boi using❔
  • Secret condoms LOL
  • Gearbox has an amazing amount of support and love for their fans/customers (at least borderlandswise). I've actually seen very few companies support their fans in such a way (golden keys were mentioned, hot fixes, dlc content). Now does that have anything to do with him using WP? Nope. But its cool that he does. The more people the better and the more people who possibly affect WP development the better.
  • Haha, that's pretty interesting. Nice read!
  • Gearbox has lost all credibilities in my and many other gamers eyes after Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens Colonial Marines debacle. They are the Texan equivalent to Silicon Knights.
     
    First they leeched SEGA's money while pretending to work on ACM despite actually diverting resources to Borderlands. Then they sub contracted the work to 3rd party devs (including TimeGate) with meager resources and no directions, then offered them up as scapegoats when ACM was panned by the majority of reviewers and gamers. Not cool Randy, not cool.
     
    Read the whitsleblowers account on Destructoid and Eurogamer.
  • I'd like to hear more about this leeching money from Sega thing. That sounds interesting. I was a huge Sega fan back in the day. Owned everything: Master System, Game Gear, Genesis, Nomad, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn, and Dreamcast (the last console I ever bought, although I'm thinking of breaking the 14-year drought this fall and getting the Xbox One).
  • "Now here is the company that should get most of the blame: Gearbox Software and Randy Pitchford. Gearbox stole from SEGA, they robbed us, lied to us about the game, and tried to get another company to make the game instead. Let's see where the funding went shall we? Everyone said the game went to both Borderlands games, but Duke Nukem Forever gets a mention as well, but it's pushed out of the spotlight, because people want to forget about that game, and I don't blame them!  Duke Nukem Forever had a big impact on Aliens: Colonial Marines as well."
     
    "It clearly shows that Pitchford and Gearbox wanted to focus heavily on Duke Nukem Forever, but how would they get the money to hire some of the 3D Realms team and even buy the intellectual property? Sure, they made a lot from Borderlands, but guess where they got the money to fund Borderlands in the first place? Yup, SEGA.
     
     
    "So Gearbox essentially lied to SEGA, mishandled funds, broke agreements and contractual obligations to work on other projects, didn't want to work on a game they were contractually obligated to work on and gave it to another team, poor organization and direction on ACM, took on too many projects from different companies at once, and other things that we may not even know about. Hell, part of me believes that Gearbox wanted this thing delayed as much as possible so they can get more funding money to embezzle from SEGA."
     
    Source:
    http://www.destructoid.com/anonymous-whistle-blower-claims-gearbox-stole-from-sega-246558.phtml
     
    "At some point in 2008, SEGA temporarily pulled the plug on the game," he said. "They caught wind of Gearbox shifting resources (despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size) and lying to SEGA AND 2K about the number of people working on each project. This led to the round of layoffs at Gearbox in late 2008."
     
    Source: http://www.destructoid.com/developer-gearbox-lied-to-sega-2k-over-colonial-marines-245986.phtml
  • Now if only we could get BL2 on WP!