Gearbox president loves the idea of “fewer, bigger bets” with games development

By Stephany Nunneley

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has said he’s not worried over the possibility of development budgets going up, due to the potential it allows.

Speaking with GI International at DICE, Pitchford stated that, on one hand, he loves “the idea of fewer, bigger bets,” due to the possibilities which would come with more resources.

“I don’t think about the future with fear,” he said. “I tend to think about it with excitement and anticipation and on one level, I love the idea of fewer, bigger bets because I’d love to see what’s possible when it makes sense to put more resources than we’ve ever put into something before.

“As a creator, the idea that our studio can build something with a budget that’s two or three times as large as past efforts – oh my god, can you imagine what we can do then? So it excites me.”

Pitchford pointed out that while the retail, console game business is down 20-25% year-over-year, per title sales are up – something he contributed to fewer games being on the market.

“Each game that did appear sold more than it did before; there are just fewer games,” he said. “Fewer, bigger bets really means something and there’s an actual affect on the market. Is that bad or good? I don’t know.

“I’d rather have fewer things that are awesome because I can’t play all this stuff anyway. You know what I mean? There’s just so much that I can’t keep up and I’m fucking hard core. I play games all the time. And I can’t keep up so I actually like the idea of fewer, bigger bets. I’m excited by that.

“Meanwhile, there’s so much vibrancy in the indie world and there are so many more tiny bets. There’s so much more diversity there. It’s really awesome.”

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