Do something good, and people want that! Do something less good, and people want it a little less!
— Randy Pitchford
The key is when we make mistakes, we want to be able to correct them and we also want to be able to learn from them so that we do not make the same mistake twice.
Good games teach what works and bad games teach what doesn't.
The philosophy at Valve and Gearbox is that if things can't be done better, they shouldn't be done at all.
When we shipped 'Borderlands 2,' we didn't ship it with a plan of how the level cap was going to increase. We didn't have any software built or strategy in place.
I think the first things I did, I used to try to create digital versions of Dungeons & Dragons that would help me generate a character, that would roll the dice for me.
If you're going to take a risk, some people will like what you offer, and some definitely won't.
If you're making entertainment on a grand scale, if you're reaching millions, there will be tens of thousands of people who absolutely hate us, and some percentage of those will take it upon themselves to let us known how they feel.
Why is 'Borderlands' different from every other game with respect to DLC? It's because we haven't really worried about what the past models are. We just thought about what would be fun for us to make and what there would be demand for if it were to exist.
With 'Duke Nukem Forever' it was a different level of commitment for me with reference to helping the creators be true to their vision. I've been able to enjoy this game as much as a fan as I am a part of the creative process, and that's a very rare and unique for me.
You can polish and iterate and double down on what the magic was. You can make a much better thing. A much cleaner thing, a much more solid thing. And that's what 'Borderlands 2' is to 'Borderlands.'
If we look at 'Borderlands,' I can't honestly say that there is anything about how well the game sold that I'm disappointed about.
There's no trend lines that work in entertainment. You can break any trend line by offering value that we as consumers of content want.
Blue Shift' is a game that I'm very proud of.
I think it's safe to say that 'Half-Life' was influenced by every first person action game that preceded it.
Just as 'Half-Life' redefined the first person action game, 'Half-Life' for Dreamcast redefines what an extension of a great PC game to console should be.
No gamer, whether you've played 'Duke 3D' or you haven't, can play 'Duke Forever' without having experiences that surprise them.
My dad used to build computers for the U.S. government, for military intelligence. So he always had computers around the house.
A mission to entertain the world is a good one because it's impossible to achieve.
Demand alone might let a business case be created, but things driven by that will have a risk of being soulless. You need it being driven from both directions. You need the nexus between demand and creative passion that wants to make something.
Each scenario in 'Battleborn' is kind of like a TV episode, you can play them in any order, and each one has a beginning, middle, and end. And they are super replayable.
I'm in the business to make games - I love entertaining people.
As a creative, as an artist, I'm just excited when people want my stuff, and want to experience it.
One of the neat things about Gearbox that I love is, we don't look at our designs as a totalitarian regime and we're all really happy to let designers and creators within the studio explore in our space.
A very important part of game development is testing - something that a lot of developers don't do.
The Dreamcast version of 'Half-Life' is great - it looks better than the original PC version and it's the only way console owners can enjoy 'Half-Life: Blue Shift.'
I've only experienced it a few times where you get to have a thing that simultaneously gets some critical respect, some critical success, while also having sales success. Sometimes you get one or the other if you're lucky.
I remember when I discovered The Beatles with music and The Beatles peaked before I was born and when I discovered them I felt really special.
Sometimes you stumble when you push yourself harder and you're trying to run faster or whatever. We forgive ourselves, pick ourselves up, and keep running. We don't cry and stop running because we skinned our knee.
There is always the person who's got to stand on the sandcastle, they must crush it.
Things that are created with passion tend to work out better than things that are assignments that we don't really want to do.
I have immense respect for Christopher Nolan for taking a character called 'Batman' - taking a comic book - and making people believe in him in a real world context.
Taking 'Duke Nukem Forever' on was a very easy decision for me to make.
If I have something that I've finished with, and someone else might find value in it, the idea of passing along for a price is a rational transaction. It exists in many aspects of our lives. But I do have to say that media is a different beast.
