Randy Pitchford

Randy Pitchford is a video game industry veteran of more than 20 years and President, CEO and co-founder of the award winning, best-selling video game developer Gearbox Software. Randy has created, developed, produced, directed, written, designed and otherwise driven or significantly contributed to some of the most successful and famous video game franchises of all time including creating the critically acclaimed, record breaking original franchises Borderlands and Brothers in Arms to industry leading, genre defining games in licensed properties including Half-Life and Halo. From his first commercial, professional work on the infamous Duke Nukem video games in the mid 1990’s to today’s efforts to create tomorrow’s hottest new video game franchise Battleborn, Randy Pitchford has become one of the most impactful and respected video game developers in the world. Randy’s credited titles across generations and platforms have sold more than 100 million units worldwide generating well over $1 billion dollars in revenue.

In 2000, Randy accepted the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for Best PC Action Game of the Year for Gearbox Software’s debut title, Half-Life: Opposing Force (1999, PC), for which he served as Executive Producer, Director, Writer and Designer. With Gearbox, Randy also executive produced, directed, produced, wrote, designed and/or was executive producer for dozens of video games spanning genres and platforms including Half-Life (2001, PS2), Counter-Strike (2001, PC), 007 James Bond: Nightfire (2002, PC), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 (2002, PC), Samba de Amigo (2008, Wii), and Halo: Combat Evolved (2003, PC).

Randy served as Co-Director and Executive Producer of Gearbox's first original franchise Brothers in Arms. In March of 2005, Gearbox launched the franchise with publisher Ubisoft on multiple platforms to achieve record sales, critical acclaim and numerous industry awards and accolades making it the best-selling and highest rated WW2 action game ever released on the Xbox video game system. Since its launch, under Randy’s guidance, the Brothers in Arms series has released over a dozen games across all major console and mobile platforms generating over $300m in gross revenue. The most recent release, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, was an Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Original Story. 

In 2009, as Executive Producer, Randy launched Borderlands, the fastest selling new video game brand of the year. Borderlands was released on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Windows PC and other digital platforms worldwide in October of 2009 to earn universal critical acclaim and record-setting sales. Featuring seamless single player and cooperative game play, Borderlands, as Randy put it, "is the first, great shooter looter." Borderlands has been nominated for and has won multiple Game of the Year awards throughout the industry and was nominated in two categories in the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. In 2012, as Executive Producer, Randy launched Borderlands 2, which went on to earn even more critical acclaim than the original Borderlands, including winner of four trophies at the 2012 Video Game Awards and Action Game of the Year at the 15^th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.  Borderlands 2 went on to become the best-selling game in the history of Gearbox Software and in the history of the 2k Games publishing label. 

Under the guidance of Randy, Gearbox Software has created multiple, award winning, best-selling original properties, has acquired world-famous and industry leading, genre defining video game properties including Duke Nukem and Homeworld and is in development on a number of original video games across all of its intellectual properties.

Randy is often featured in media round-ups of industry figureheads, on video game related features and documentaries and as a keynote speaker at relevant conferences and events. Before becoming a full-time video game developer, Randy was a professional magician in Hollywood occasionally performing at the famous Magic Castle between classes at UCLA. Under the handle "DuvalMagic" Randy is also is a feverishly dedicated gamer who has earned a competitive reputation since the days of Doom to the end-game raids of World of Warcraft. His Xbox Live Gamer Score, Blizzard battle.net Achievements, Steam Achievements, PSN Trophies and even his Apple Game Center records all tell the story of a man who has committed his life to making *and* playing video games. You can find Randy and his 400,000-plus followers on Twitter with his handle @DuvalMagic.