There is a lot of good things that can be said about Borderlands 3, the popular looter shooter threequel, and those good things come from the hard work of every developer who played a role in it. That's why reports of Gearbox not paying its employees their promised royalty payments has many up in arms.
For context, Gearbox doesn't pay like a typical developer. Whereas many elsewhere are paid specific salaries, Gearbox employees are paid below-average but also take part in a revenue-sharing model. 60% of this money goes back to to the company, while the other 40 is split among the employees in a quarterly bonus. For Borderlands 2, this was enough to buy houses, but shortcomings like Alien: Colonial Marines and Battleborne led to less-than-ideal bonuses. Understandably, when Pitchford revealed that Borderlands 3 was more expensive than expected and so royalty payments would be far less than promised, employees and otherwise were upset.
Pitchford had largely remained silent on this controversy in the fallout but has recently taken to Twitter to respond to accusations tied to this controversy. In reponse to a tweet citing the Kotaku report that broke the news, Pitchford responded by calling it "tabloid click bait" and providing a "credible, verifiable source." That source being Gearbox Game Director Maxime Babin's damage control of the situation, stating that checks were received, that there was an expectation gap, but that it was not as played up as many made it seem.
When asked about the three sources of Kotaku, Pitchford pulled out the "who are you going to believe" line by reiterating that the "tabloid narrative was a lie." He states that his source is real and verifiable, implying that the anonymous sources themselves are not. He wants people to challenge themselves for the truth instead of wanting to believe the worse.
It is worth noting that the aforementioned Kotaku report was written by Jason Schreier, a well-known video game journalist with a documented history of challenging the working conditions of the video game industry. His career was practically built on it, with reports challenging the working conditions at BioWare and several other studios. In short, when it comes to believing a source, it's hard not to believe this one.
Questioning the existence of the anonymous source that specifically are against him is also suspect. In the past, Pitchford has had public spats with the likes of Wade Callendar, David Eddings, and had other accusations filed against him, so it would stand to reason that some may not want to publicly speak up. Sure, fans need to care about the truth, but as such, it's hard not to believe Schreier on the situation; he has a history of caring about it.
When caring about the truth, that means caring about both sides of the story. Nonetheless, perhaps neither should be taken at face value, but lashing out like this is not the way to get that purported truth out.
Borderlands 3 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Twitter