Gearbox CEO wants Bungie & Infinity Ward to move beyond established brands
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford wants Bungie and Infinity Ward to leave behind the Halo and Call of Duty/Modern Warfare brands and create something new. While he prefaced his comments by showering both devs with celestial praise, Pitchford said he is eagerly anticipating new intellectual properties from each team.
"I keep waiting to hear what Bungie is going to do that's not Halo," Pitchford told VideoGamer at E3. "Same with Infinity Ward. It's like, dude I'm totally psyched to get my Call of Duty fix every year, but you guys are amazing! What else have you got? Can you give me something I haven't seen before?"
Pitchford does admit it's difficult to walk away from established brands when the risk of creating a new IP is so high, but says innovators need to be rewarded so that teams "making big bets can take that risk."
Gearbox Software itself is no stranger to established brands. After porting Halo: Combat Evolved to PC in 2003, Gearbox developed the Brothers in Arms series, which has seen 10 titles released across 11 platforms since its debut in 2005. Gearbox is currently developing the new IP Borderlands, which is set to hit the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this fall.
