The head of the gaming studio Gearbox (Borderlands) is involved in a legal dispute. The studio’s former lawyer accuses Randy Pitchford of having received 12 million dollars under the table. Pitchford is said to have lost a USB stick containing confidential information and his private porn collection.
Who is suing? Wade Callender is suing. He was the lawyer for Gearbox from 2010 to 2018. He filed a lawsuit against Pitchford on December 21, 2018, accusing him of various offenses. He allegedly violated contracts.
The lawsuit comes a month after Callender himself was sued by Gearbox. Gearbox accuses him of fraud. Callender allegedly misused his credit card access to cover personal expenses. He allegedly paid for a family vacation or a membership in a gun club with the company card.
There are also numerous other allegations against Callender.
This is the main point against Pitchford: In the lawsuit, Callender states that Pitchford negotiated a “secret, personal” bonus with the publisher Take-Two in 2016. This allegedly involved advance payments.
As a result, he allegedly received 12 million dollars directly for his company “Pitchford Entertainment Media Magic, LLC.” He allegedly smuggled this money past the employees of Gearbox. This is particularly tragic because this money would have otherwise gone into the development of Borderlands, according to the lawsuit.
Anecdote in the podcast about lost USB stick
This is the accusation regarding the porn: Callender also states that Pitchford lost a USB stick in Dallas, Texas, in 2014. This stick allegedly contained sensitive documents about Gearbox, 2k Games, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft.
Additionally, it also contained Randy Pitchford’s private collection of pornography.
This seems to corroborate the accusation: The website Ars Technica subsequently found a story from Pitchford, which he told on December 22 in a podcast about magic. There, he described how a camgirl fakes a female orgasm as “an impressive magic trick.”
Pitchford said in the podcast that he once saved a porn video on his USB stick, which he then lost.
Someone found the stick, took it home, and opened it. There, he saw secrets from Pitchford’s company, future games that were still in development, and of course the pornography.
This is what Gearbox says: There is a statement from Gearbox stating that Callender’s lawsuit is absurd. They will themselves sue against these allegations. Callender knows that he is lying.
He tries to secure himself with his “legal language” and the use of quotation marks because he senses that Gearbox will hold him accountable for it.
Callender uses lies to cause damage and to establish a viewpoint that he knows is false.
Pitchford shocked by accusations from his former friend
This is what Pitchford says: The CEO himself speaks up on Twitter. He says that the attacks from his former friend and colleague have no basis in reality or the legal system. He is just trying to extort money from him.
Gearbox will win. But since this is an ongoing legal dispute, Pitchford cannot comment on it as he would like. He is shocked by the lies.
Pitchford also says that he has now learned who his friends are. He will focus on work and trust that the truth and justice will prevail in the courts.
