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Kotaku: Despite Huge Sales, Borderlands 3 Developers Are Getting Stiffed On Bonuses
- Thread starter Kenzodielocke
- Start date
It sounds like this is far, far from a profit-sharing scenario like most companies have which is based on performance through the end of their fiscal year. This sounds more like specific expectations were given and at the very last minute just sort of fell apart. Pretty clear that they didn't know about it until now.
And it's on the executive team, imo, to set the proper expectation instead of over-promising which it sounds like happened here to maybe try and keep the morale up until now.
If they were promised 40% of profits, they got 40% of profits, and they will continue to get 40% of future profits, theyre getting exactly what they were promised...
Idk I hate that I feel like I'm defending gearbox here. We just need to address the actual issue detailed here if we think it's a problem. We sure probably can assume that management wasn't trying to make LESS profit for their own bonuses though to screw over the employees. If something comes out showing that management did something sneaky here to bury profit, then yeah they're shitheads. But it doesn't really look like it?
Utterly floored at how consistently good Randy is at being that dude that ties people to railroad tracks.
Just absolutely A1 at being unlikeable.
So Randy probably took a bit hit because of the Coronavirus crash and doesn't want to forgo anything he wants, so fuck everyone else I guess.
Reading this article my mind goes back to the dozens of comments I have read from people justifying crunch. Think of the bonus checks! Sure, they work hard, but they are compensated, right? But of course that isn't the reality of the situation. It is all manipulative bullshit. A shell game to convince people to work for substantially less than they are worth.
Game developers need unions, and they need them desperately.
Game developers need unions, and they need them desperately.
Again, for those in the back who don't listen. Or don't bother to submit applications elsewhere. LEAVE GEARBOX.
Now not later. Randy is a pathological liar and if I get one more: "Why does the internet have their dick hard out for Randy". I'm going to blow after YEARS of this shit.
The problem was continuously been misled into believing higher bonuses. This quote stands out the most.
They gave this information after the game launched. Expenses would have been known prior to the game launching. The company was underpaying market value and the only motivation was the bonuses. The knew exactly what they were doing. There wouldn't have been any doubt employees potentially finding work elsewhere had they been notified in advance about the bonus profit situation especially since they're being currently undervalued. Employees now face two choices, they stick around for a company which basically misled them on bonuses first time around or they quit in a current climate where things are shut down and don't receive future bonuses after years of work.
1 strike for being an idiot, another for the stupid exclusivity deal with EGS, and now this bs.
This kind of stuff make me sour on supporting this because of issues like this.
Gearbox is already on thin ice with me as a consumer mainly due to Randy.
This kind of stuff make me sour on supporting this because of issues like this.
Gearbox is already on thin ice with me as a consumer mainly due to Randy.
Meanwhile, executives around the world get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance/bonuses after being fired for mismanagement and gross negligence. But if you think that's wrong, immoral and a systematic problem that has to be rooted out, then you're naive. Obviously.
Corporate shield. And nothing in this article would pierce that veil. The bad guy wins.
Which is potentially always true for any boycott of a company of more than 1 person.
But number seems to show that between other employes and Randy, one person seems to benefit more than the other from keeping the status quo.
Pitchford continues to prove he's one of the biggest slime sucking scum fuckers in the industry
True! I am torn on the topic after having been in a similar situation previously (company getting lots of bad press, people calling for boycotts, with a lot of us employees who couldn't easily switch employers being stuck in the middle). I do feel for the devs and would not encourage anyone to boycott their games, but I definitively can't blame anyone who doesn't want to give any of their hard-earned money to Randy.
Is there any reason the people at Gearbox can't simply leave and make their own studio? There's clearly competent people there at multiple levels. Unless it's a situation where the studio has a lot of turnover.
Sure, they could, just as any collective of talent at any dev could do this. The barrier is always capital though. Leaving Gearbox, or any role, is leaving a wage. If you're going to jump ship as a collective with intent of starting up solo you're also going to need a project fast, someone to pay those wages, or an enormous amount of capital to offset the loss of unpaid time to work on pitches.
I'm sure a lot of devs around the world would love nothing more than to leave their conditions and band together, but deterred due to the high risk / high monetary loss of doing so.
All good and fair points. I don't know what the rights situation are with Borderlands but maybe 2K has the resources to support such an effort. Borderlands is a marque brand for 2K and perhaps this is an opportunity for them to take advantage of this situation.
I would assume other publishers would immediately take interest in or aide a mass exodus from Gearbox.
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Saw Borderlands 3 on sale on PSN store last night. Almost bought it.
Now I will definitely avoid.
Now I will definitely avoid.
The company did not just find out this week they weren't going to make as much money as expected and thus bonuses would be lower. Coincidence that employees got told this at the end of the Q1?
Yeah, that sounds like Pitchford alright; what a terrible human being. Such a shame since Borderlands is one of my favourite series. Was seriously considering picking it up now that it's on steam but I'm just gonna wait for a sale. What's the point even supporting a company if the talent isn't getting paid their fair share.
Borderlands 2 was the last thing I bought, Colonial Marines and the debacle around that was the final nail.
Can they not get rid of this guy? It's not like he owns 2K or Gearbox right? I get that it can be hard to get rid of people at or near the top.
I've got to think it's easier than getting rid of our own presidential problem but maybe I don't know how it all works.
I've got to think it's easier than getting rid of our own presidential problem but maybe I don't know how it all works.
I think he would have been ousted a long time ago but Gearbox is privately owned. So he either has a majority stake in the company and/or he makes the other shareholders happy enough.
Think he does own Gearbox or at least a major percentage of it.
It's Randy pitchford so that means that they are shitheads. You don't have to give them the benefit of the doubt when they certainly haven't earned it.
I believe Randy is not only one of the co-founders of the company, but CEO as well. Gearbox is also a private company which means he more than likely isn't going anywhere given the success they've had.
Randy once again proves how much of an asshole he is, its a shame his company has made good games because I hate supporting him. I didn't buy Borderlands 3 because the EPIC deal annoyed me and Randy was in the news doing horrible shit.
It sucks there is no way to really win here, if you don't support gearbox yes you hurt randy but you also hurt the other gearbox people, if you do buy them you have to support randy so he can fuck those on his team anyway...
I wonder how much of that EPIC money he gave to himself.
It sucks there is no way to really win here, if you don't support gearbox yes you hurt randy but you also hurt the other gearbox people, if you do buy them you have to support randy so he can fuck those on his team anyway...
I wonder how much of that EPIC money he gave to himself.
So is it that Gearbox isn't disbursing 40% of its income from the game to employees, or is their income just less than anticipated?
Seems to be the latter. The numbers have come back from 2K and the profits are far lower than projected, so the initial bonuses are far lower than projected.
People are reading this as they are withholding the money but that isn't the case. There is just way less than expected to go around.
I work in the tech industry. Readers need to understand that these bonuses were not pie in the sky promises, they are contracted and written. There just isn't as much money in the 40% at this time to give out the huge payouts everyone was thinking would be there coming off of BL2.
It isn't a robbery. If they were stealing the money they'd be liable for suit because the revenue sharing is set in contract.
I personally just got handed papers a couple of days ago that our future bonus payouts would be far less than they have been, because of the uncertainty of the coming times, and it was a ""sign it or quit" situation. But it's written out in clear language every time what the percentages of the payouts will be.
Right, which would make this more a case of mismanagement than deceit (depending on when Pitchford knew their returns would be significantly below projections).
Still if the lower payouts are due to higher expenses that is something upper management has known about for a long time yet they have presumably acted (read deceived) as if everything had gone as planned up until now. Likely with the intention to retain as much of the staff as possible until the project was done. It would be a different story if was due to lower than projected sales, but that isn't the case here. Plus his response basically telling them to get them to fucked if they don't like it shows just little he cares. Nothing illegal, but very questionable ethics.
It's absolutely deceit. He didn't just find out expenses were much higher than planned. If he did he has no clue what is going on with his own company. He may be a slimeball, but he isn't incompetent.
Well he certainly knew what the expenses were in advance, it's the sales and ancillary revenue that could have fallen short of predictions.
Which is why I said "depending on when he knew."
Randy Pitchford would make a great subject for a Behind the Bastards Podcast. I should email them!
Really rocking that rebel boat, if you know what I'm saying.
Not going to be like those other devs, no way!
Not going to be like those other devs, no way!
he is a shareholder with controlling ownership stake and CEO.
he 100% knows what's going on with business behind the scenes.
He IS the behind the scenes.