Randy Pitchford

Randy Pitchford
Born	(1971-04-21) April 21, 1971
Occupation(s)	President, CEO, Executive Liar, Snake-oil Salesman, Con-man, Fraudster, and co-founder of Gearbox Software

Randall S. "DuvalMagic" Pitchford II (also known as DuvalMagic) is one of five founders of video game developer Gearbox Software and currently the CEO and president of the company.

Career

He wrote his first game (a 16-room text adventure) when he was about 11 or 12 on a CPM machine which his dad built. In his early days Randy was a professional magician in Hollywood occasionally performing at the famous Magic Castle between classes at UCLA.

Randy had a long professional background in the production and design of 3D games including work on Apogee Software/3D Realms Entertainment's "Atomic" edition for Duke Nukem 3D, and Shadow Warrior. He left the company in May 1997 to work on Prax War at Rebel Boat Rocker. The game was never released and he helped found Gearbox Software LLC in Texas in January 1999.

Randy accepted the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award for best PC Action Game in 2000 for his production and direction of Gearbox's debut title, Half-Life: Opposing Force. Since then, Randy's company has been involved in the development and production of Half-Life for Dreamcast (cancelled), Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life for PlayStation 2, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, James Bond 007: Nightfire for PC, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for PC, Halo: Combat Evolved for PC, Borderlands for PC and the Brothers In Arms series. More recently Gearbox bought the Duke Nukem IP and finished up 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever, which Randy briefly worked on before forming Gearbox.

Randy finished working on Gearbox's newest title, Aliens: Colonial Marines which was released on February 12, 2013. It has been rumored that Sega is going to take legal action against Gearbox. It has also been suggested that Gearbox received a large amount of money from Sega for the development of Aliens Colonial Marines but this money was redirected for Borderlands and Borderlands 2. It is unknown how long it will be until Sega files a lawsuit against Gearbox. It is also unknown how long it will be before US Postal Inspectors and other law enforcement agencies serve a search warrant against Gearbox's corporate headquarters in Texas in an attempt to uncover evidence of Gearbox's potentially fraudulent financial records.

Randy also provided the voice for the character Crazy Earl in the Borderlands series.

External links

• Biography at Gearbox Software website
• Gamespot Interview: Video Game History Month: Randy Pitchford
• GameStar: Randy Pitchford: "Video games and magic have a lot in common".