So, Gearbox has been rubbing me the wrong way as of late, first there was the whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault, it still left me feeling a bit off about them. And now Randy Pitchford is calling the eurogamer leak about Borderlands 2 "shoddy journalism". I understand that he's annoyed, sure, but you can't say someone's sucking at their job when they report something that's obviously true. The whole thing stinks of just expecting the games press to just play along with your own plans and expectations. An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again. Someone ferret out what new game you're working on and write a story about it? Claim that it's not true and that the person writing the story is a hack. 
Stories like this do absolutely no harm to anyone, there were no details about the game in the story, so people still need to either get the Game Informer issue or wait until that info is out elsewhere to find out what's new.  
 
On a related note, I think it's pretty funny that the first game Gearbox releases after Anthony Burch (from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin?) is probably the most sexist game ever released. Anthony and his sister Ashly have had numerous discussions about sexism in games on their podcasts. I realize that he almost definitely had nothing to do with the writing or production of that game, but it still struck me as interesting. 
 
Ars Technica story about the upset Randy Pitchford 
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/developer-calls-accurate-borderlands-2-report-shoddy-journalism.ars 
 Anthony Burch's previous claim to fame, most of the videos are pretty funny 
http://www.heyash.com/

So, Gearbox has been rubbing me the wrong way as of late, first there was the whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault, it still left me feeling a bit off about them. And now Randy Pitchford is calling the eurogamer leak about Borderlands 2 "shoddy journalism". I understand that he's annoyed, sure, but you can't say someone's sucking at their job when they report something that's obviously true. The whole thing stinks of just expecting the games press to just play along with your own plans and expectations. An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again. Someone ferret out what new game you're working on and write a story about it? Claim that it's not true and that the person writing the story is a hack. 
Stories like this do absolutely no harm to anyone, there were no details about the game in the story, so people still need to either get the Game Informer issue or wait until that info is out elsewhere to find out what's new.  
 
On a related note, I think it's pretty funny that the first game Gearbox releases after Anthony Burch (from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin?) is probably the most sexist game ever released. Anthony and his sister Ashly have had numerous discussions about sexism in games on their podcasts. I realize that he almost definitely had nothing to do with the writing or production of that game, but it still struck me as interesting. 
 
Ars Technica story about the upset Randy Pitchford 
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/developer-calls-accurate-borderlands-2-report-shoddy-journalism.ars 
 Anthony Burch's previous claim to fame, most of the videos are pretty funny 
http://www.heyash.com/

" whole DNF review fiasco, and while not technically Gearbox's fault" & "An outlet give your last game a harsh review? Threaten to never send them review copies or early builds of any of their games ever again" by your own admission nothing to do with Gearbox so why are you getting rubbed the wrong way by them over this? As of the "Leak" of Borderlands 2 they were probably just pissed off because they wanted to make a big announcement themselves at one of the up-coming events so in that respect I can fully understand why they'd be pissed.

Yeah, the press should all just play along with GameStop's subsidised brochure getting every major exclusive and damn well like it.

After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.

yep, not really gearbox's fault on duke nukem. i think they finally just said we should release the game the way it is. i played it at my friend's house and it wasn't that great.

@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.

@WiqidBritt: Leaks are bad, and it kinda is shitty that journalists put it out there as much as they do...

The journalism comment was unnecessary.  I think this was the case of a person tweeting before thinking.  He probably was embarrassed and felt bad for Game Informer as they had the exclusive information to the game's existence.  If I were in his place I would feel responsible to that outlet to keep that exclusive information...well, exclusive.  He was probably upset and reacted rather then allowing himself to sit back and think clearly.  I think he was in the wrong but I understand why he was upset.  He just didn't need to let those emotions out to the public.
 
As for the DNF thing, I really don't see that as their problem.  They just released a product that was damn near finished.  It is under their name because the original developer doesn't exist as it once did and they wanted the rights to the DN name.  
 
I don't know, I think out of all the developers in the world of gaming Gearbox would be the last one to irritate me.

Borderlands was a buggy piece of shit? 

@Twisted_Scot said:

@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.

Yeah I didn't say it was tied to an event I said perhaps they were going to make their own big announcement at one of the upcoming event and GI just screwed them out of it by printing that issue 1st. Id be pissed if I were Gearbox in this case as well. Since I havent read the full GI article i cant say whether it is or isn't shoddy journalism :)

They weren't annoyed about the GI issue - they had a cover feature and full access. That was the official reveal.

It was Eurogamer posting a story a few days before 'confirming' the game's development that they called shoddy journalism.

And yeah, I used to really respect Randy Pitchford and all the interviews I'd seen him in painted him as a pretty cool guy. But, with his twitter comments regarding bad reviews for DNF, and now this lash out at Journalists for trying to, you know, actually do some journalism and not just be an extension of company PR, makes me thing he's loosing the plot somewhat...

@crusader8463 said:

After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.

Whaaaaaa?

@crusader8463 said:

After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.

Whaaaaaa?

Randy has a habit of speaking his mind. CVG used to make news stories out of pretty much everything he said however this was just pathetic . If that is really his views on some actual journalism by a publication then his reputation severely degrades in my eyes. It seems like that persistent idea with publishers and developers that publications should just be another tool in marketing the game. The Ars article gives a good example of this. Why even write something like that at all, it was a mere 24 hours before the thing was revealed and it wasn't even Gearbox who was going to reveal it, It was Game Informer. 

@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way. 
 
@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.

@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way. 
 
@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.

Wait wait wait....Your getting pissed at me for saying Game informer instead of Eurogamer? Perhaps you should check your replies as I hadn't mentioned GI until you did. You seem to get pissed very easily, perhaps a time-out is in order.

Wait, what? The HAWP guy is now working for Gearbox?

@Twisted_Scot said:

@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: seriously? first off, it's eurogamer that he's upset at, and secondly if you think Game Informer is the kind of publication that would risk compromising their relations with developers you are out of your damn mind. Being tied to Gamestop means they pretty much have to fall in line, but at the same time they get a lot of exclusives that way. 
 
@WiqidBritt said:

@Twisted_Scot: the Borderlands 2 announcement wasn't tied to an event, it's tied to the newest issue of Game Informer, who came out and announced it the next day anyway. Being upset about it is one thing, but calling it out as shoddy journalism is in bad taste.

Wait wait wait....Your getting pissed at me for saying Game informer instead of Eurogamer? Perhaps you should check your replies as I hadn't mentioned GI until you did. You seem to get pissed very easily, perhaps a time-out is in order.

Forgive me for letting other people's stupidity upset me, I don't know what I was thinking. You said Gearbox was upset at Game Informer, which they are not, they gave Game Informer the exclusive announcement and the first details of the game, Gearbox has no reason to be upset with GI.
 
@MordeaniisChaos: how exactly do leaks really hurt anyone? Sure, publishers and developers have PR plans for slowly drip feeding details and announcements to the public, but I don't see how knowing about a game a day or even a few weeks early is really all that damaging except for the publication that was supposed to have the exclusive reveal. 

@Hailinel said:

@crusader8463 said:

After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.

Whaaaaaa?

 What don't you understand? It took them about a year to patch the online to a playable state, and by then the community was non existent, and the UI was still a pain in the ass to use.

@crusader8463 said:

@Hailinel said:

@crusader8463 said:

After them releasing Borderlands in such a buggy, broken, and unplayable mess of a state I have made a personally vow to never buy another gearbox game at full price again.

Whaaaaaa?

 What don't you understand? It took them about a year to patch the online to a playable state, and by then the community was non existent, and the UI was still a pain in the ass to use.

I played online quite a lot soon after it was released and I had zero bugs, only slight lag because of low pings due to the client and the multiplayer wasn't broken since I always found a game in seconds.

I guess "Deep Throat" was also shoddy journalism, right?  *sigh*
 
Yes, after releasing DNF and now this, Gearbox and Randy Pitchford aren't doing themselves any favors lately.  Well, other than making Borderlands 2.