Randy Pitchford is still President and CEO of Gearbox despite being basically a cartoon villain at this point. Gearbox has to get rid of him, and soon.

Imagine this: You get your dream job working as a game developer. You start working for Gearbox for less than what you'd make at other big-name developers, but the guy in charge promises you something else: profit-sharing. If the game is a big success, then you make a big bonus. If the game flops, then you make nothing. Fair is fair.

Only it's not fair. Borderlands 3 was a huge success — the biggest game Gearbox or publisher Take-Two Interactive has ever released, and a "billion-dollar brand" — but because "sales did not meet expectations," you're getting bupkis.

Oh, and if you don't like it, you're told you can quit.

Pitchford
via VideoGamer
Pitchford

Sounds like the boss from hell, right? Well, this is just the latest example of how Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford is basically the scummiest of all studio execs.

Remember the whole Claptrap thing? Borderlands fans know the voice actor for Borderlands 3 is not David Eddings, the guy who used to work at Gearbox and voiced the franchise mascot, Claptrap, since the first game came out in 2009. When Eddings finally asked to be paid for his time, they instead hired a new guy.

Eddings quit Gearbox in 2017 after Pitchford allegedly assaulted him in the hotel lobby at that year’s GDC. Things between Eddings and Pitchford were already pretty tense after Eddings found out that Pitchford had diverted $15 million from Take-Two into his personal account, money initially intended as a Gearbox employee bonus. That’s enough to leave any employee a bit peeved.

Sad Claptrap
via Gearbox
Sad Claptrap

And that $15 million diversion? It's also the source of a lengthy legal battle between Pitchford and a former Gearbox lawyer. Pitchford accused the lawyer of using the company card for personal reasons, so the lawyer fired back with a lawsuit for that diverted $15 million. When Pitchford was accused of contempt of court for refusing to offer up documents during the discovery process, the parties settled the case under mysterious circumstances. One can’t imagine what might have encouraged Pitchford to make that case go away.

RELATED: Gearbox To End The Borderlands 3 Vault Insider Program In May

There's a running theme here of Pitchford being too cheap to pay his employees. He failed to pay Duke Nukem 3D's composer for royalties on sales of the remastered Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour. And Tales from the Borderlands voice actor Troy Baker didn't return for Borderlands 3 to play Rhys, either. Apparently, Gearbox didn't even bother reaching out since Baker was a unionized voice actor and they wanted someone cheaper.

Calypso
via Gearbox
Calypso

All of these sad stories have a cumulative effect. Eventually, people are going to stop doing business with Gearbox because they know that the guy in charge is a liar and a thief. They know he's so greedy he’ll take money from his own employees and tell them to quit if they don’t like it. We can likely expect a mass exodus of Gearbox devs for this latest fiasco. Next time, hopefully nobody will believe Pitchford when he says he’ll hand out big bonuses if his next game sells.

History shows us he won't.

NEXT: Randy Does It Again: Borderlands 3 Devs Aren't Getting Promised Royalty Bonus