Gearbox's Pitchford: Publishers are a blessing to me

Developers are idea people. They lay out the dominoes, build elaborate houses from playing cards, and hang "do not touch" signs everywhere, and then money-grubbing publishers hack it all to pieces. Right?

Wrong, says Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford.

"Publishers are a blessing to me,” Pitchford said in an interview with MCV. “The last thing in the world I want to do is spend my time thinking about how to get boxes on trucks and send them to stores."

“I don't want to deal with manufacturing, I don't want to deal with sales, I didn't get in the business to do those kinds of things. I want to create and I'm thankful that there are publishers who like doing that and who are efficient. I'm grateful that there are people who are inspired by that stuff.  I'd hang myself if that was my job.”

"It's a partnership, like a marriage,” he enthused. “We choose each other and there is a constant dating process. That's part of what happens here at DICE, an infinite moshpit of courtship. It's amazing how much business gets done here. Maybe deals aren't closed but there's a lot of relationship management going on. It's like speed-dating.”

We can only imagine what Pitchford's pickup lines are like. "Hi there. Would you like to go out with me? No? Oh, that's fine then. I'm just gonna go and hang myself. Toodles!"