In a new interview with Gamesauce magazine, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took the time to comment on the practices of video game journalists; he believes many are taking his comments out of context merely to drum up traffic.
In response to a question regarding these ‘out-of-context’ quotes, Pitchford asserts that he's being portrayed in the wrong light. “It’s always interesting to me when video game ‘journalists’ earn value and readers from contrived controversy. Somehow, they’ve always managed to leave their readers with the impression that some of my favorite games are things I wish to tear down,” he states.
Though he does not specifically mention the instances that were taken out of context, leading to controversy in the media, the recent spat with Valve and Steam does ring a bell. Pitchford went on record with Maximum PC back in October 2009 about his feelings on Steam and how it isn’t the answer. Though he does state that he does conduct a business relationship with Valve, he has been rather critical of their attitude towards the Sony PlayStation 3. In a discussion with MCV, he downplays the feud as nothing more than a concoction of the media as anything.
“It’s comments made there that can get taken out of context of a larger discussion and turned into what appears to be an outright criticism or even attack,” Pitchford clears up in the interview.
He adds, “Only from the greatest do we learn the greatest lessons…. it’s fun to explore the industry a bit and look at the greatest and imagine what could make the greatest even better.” If his comments were meant as a form of flattery towards Steam, then hopefully Gearbox can come up with something better in the future.
4 Comments
May 18, 2010
Oh, we're sorry Randy that we published things you wish you hadn't said in retrospect. Sure, certain parts of an interview might be emphasized more than others, but that's just the business - it happens to everyone that says something like, "Steam helps us as customers, but it’s also a money grab, and Valve is exploiting a lot of people in a way that’s not totally fair."
May 18, 2010
David - I think a response is appropriate given the nature of the comments, but I don't feel the sarcastic tone is appropriate for an editor of this website.
May 18, 2010
David just likes being sarcastic. To Pitchford's point, yes some journalists look for controversy or look to create controversy to gain more attention for themselves or their website. But to David's point, it's hard to see where saying things like Valve is exploiting people as being taken out of context. Pitchford just seems to be one of these outspoken types that occasionally says stuff he wishes he hadn't after the fact.
May 18, 2010
If Pitchford has a particular issue with what comments are taken out of context, fine, he should list those and say where they were misinterpreted. Otherwise, it just sounds like he's trying to shift the blame to journalists for sensationalizing his comments “out of context.” Yes, we pull the most interesting things people say that are often controversial (no secret there) but you have to own up to what you say.