A dispute escalated on Twitter between David Eddings, the former voice of Claptrap, and the head of Borderlands 3, Randy Pitchford. The voice actor claims that Pitchford became physical with him. Gearbox has already responded.
What happened? The former voice actor of the robot Claptrap will not be appearing in Borderlands 3. The reason allegedly stems from a dispute over money between former voice actor David Eddings and the heads of Gearbox. David Eddings also worked as Vice President of Business Development at Gearbox.
On Twitter, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford and David Eddings exchanged barbs for several hours. However, according to Eddings, there is more to the dispute.
What does the voice actor claim? Allegedly, Pitchford physically attacked him. This reportedly happened in 2017 during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017. Eddings does not specify what the physical violence entailed.
This was the original dispute between Pitchford and Eddings:
- Pitchford claimed that Eddings wanted too much money for the job, which led to a decision to choose another voice actor.
- Eddings claimed that this is not true and that he only wanted the royalties.
- In response to fan inquiries, Pitchford portrayed the former employee Eddings as bitter. He even claimed that they offered him double the salary that was standard for this role in the industry.
In response, Eddings again spoke out with the tweet embedded above, stating that Pitchford became violent towards him at GDC 2017. He claimed he would have even voiced Claptrap for free if Pitchford had apologized to him for the alleged incidents in 2017 and paid the outstanding royalties.
This is how Gearbox reacts to the allegations
In response to PCGamer.com, Gearbox issued a statement regarding Eddings’ allegations:
Gearbox takes all claims of this nature very seriously, and we will not comment on Dave’s allegations, as it is a personal matter. We appreciate David’s contribution to the Borderlands franchise, and we can only reiterate that we would welcome him back as the voice of Claptrap and for other future projects.
Official statement from Gearbox to PCGamer regarding the allegations by Dave Eddings
Which of the two parties is correct, given that they each claim something completely opposite, cannot be determined from the statements available. For now, it is a case of one statement against another.
Recently, Pitchford faced controversy over a statement he made regarding microtransactions in Borderlands 3:
