Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
Former Gearbox General Counsel Wade Callender and CEO Randy Pitchford are suing each other. A number of allegations are made by Callender in the lawsuit, including a claim that Pitchford received a secret $12 million bonus from Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive. This alleged bonus was an advance on future earnings from the game.
A Gearbox spokesman told Kotaku that “The allegations made by a disgruntled former employee are absurd, with no basis in reality or law,” adding “we look forward to addressing this meritless lawsuit in court and have no further comment at this time.”
Gearbox later made this additional statement:
Gearbox will be filing a grievance with the State Bar of Texas against our former general counsel Wade for disciplinary proceedings for filing a lawsuit that includes accusations that he knows to be untrue. The lawyer’s rules of professional conduct expressly prohibit the filing of documents that are knowingly false. The tell is within Wade’s claim itself – his use of hedged lawyer language and clever application of quotation marks betray that he knows that the impression he is trying to create is based in lies. We imagine that he used the quotation marks and lawyer language in hopes that will give him some angles of defense when we inevitably take action against him for false statements. Wade is engaged in a shakedown and he’s clearly using deceit and lies to try to cause damage by promoting a narrative that he knows is false.
Here's the entire lawsuit Gearbox is bringing against Callender:
Gearbox suit against Callender by on Scribd
Here's the entire lawsuit Callender is bringing against Randy Pitchford and Gearbox:
Gearbox lawsuit by on Scribd
Wade Callender describes alleged "peacock parties" during which men would expose themselves to underage children to the amusement of Randy Pitchford." Gearbox denies the existence of any such parties, stating that Callender's claims were "made up by Wade in a further attempt to paint a sensational picture that is demonstrably false.”
Callender also claims that Pitchford lost a USB key containing child pornography along with data from video game partners in 2014. This is a serious accusation, and one that Pitchford apparently addressed on a magic podcast last year. "It’s a woman who is masturbating,” Pitchford said, “and when she has some experience that appears as if she’s having an orgasm, a huge amount of fluid comes out of her vagina.”
“This is not a sex worker—this is a fucking magician,” Pitchford continued. “Some kid, an employee of the Medieval Times, discovered this memory stick, took it home, and accessed it because it was before we were password-protecting, and discovered secrets of my company and future games in development, and also discovered the pornography. And it was barely legal porn. This girl’s handle was ‘Only 18.’”
These matters will be settled in court but in a very vague tweet, former VP of Gearbox Dave Eddings simply said, "Yes, it's true."
Gearbox's CEO took to Twitter to publicly address his fans and critics:
It remains to be seen what evidence Callender will present when these matters are settled in court, but today's news is not good for Gearbox and their CEO. This could either be a case of a disgruntled former employee (he did work on Aliens: Colonial Marines) or it could be something much more sinister that involves serious accusations. Only time will tell if Gearbox and Randy Pitchford are able to clear their names from these claims by their former general counsel.