Founder of Gearbox Gives
Randy Pitchford is the founder of the Gearbox Entertainment Company and Gearbox Gives. With more than 25 years of experience in the interactive entertainment industry, he is among the sector’s leading voices and one of the world’s most acclaimed game developers. Gearbox Gives reflects Randy’s long-held belief that entertainment can be a vehicle for education, social good, and scientific advancement.
Randy founded then-Gearbox Software in 1999 with a clear mission: to entertain the world. With that mission at the heart of its work, Gearbox has developed iconic titles that have pushed video games forward and brought joy to millions around the world. Randy’s full gameography is as diverse as it is long. Most recently, he served as executive producer for the beloved Borderlands series, which received commercial success and critical acclaim—the most recent being Borderlands 3 in 2019.
Borderlands 3 has inspired some of Gearbox’s most innovative social impact work. In 2020, Randy enlisted the Borderlands 3 community to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Players could buy special in-game masks for their characters, with the proceeds helping global humanitarian organization Direct Relief to secure protective equipment for frontline medical workers. Randy also spearheaded Borderlands Science, a mini-game inside Borderlands 3 and the largest citizen science project of all time. This initiative was launched in partnership with Massively Multiplayer Online Science, McGill University, and the Microsetta Initiative in 2020. Through Borderlands Science, nearly 4.5 million players have helped map the human gut microbiome, contributing to cutting-edge medical research. Since the project's inception, Randy has co-authored an article and report in the leading academic journal Nature Biotechnology about the project’s success and implications for future research.
In addition to his work on individual games, Randy has been the driving force behind Gearbox’s growth from a small, independent studio into a multinational company of more than 600 employees. In 2015, he founded Gearbox Entertainment Company subsidiary Gearbox Publishing, which has worked with both up-and-coming developers and industry leaders. Most recently, Randy guided Gearbox through a $1.3 billion merger with Embracer Group in 2021. The deal gives Pitchford and Gearbox the resources to ramp up their creative output and continue to focus on delivering entertainment to a global audience.
Gearbox’s success has enabled Randy to expand the company’s philanthropic and CSR efforts even further. He is particularly passionate about improving equity and diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. 2020 initiatives included a game development education and mentorship program for at-risk youth at Longview ISD in North Texas, as well as a partnership with Microsoft, Urban One Networks, and The Tom Joyner Foundation to initiate game-based STEM programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Randy also undertook a college speaking tour in 2020, meeting with game development students at leading universities like Savannah College of Art & Design, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Southern California, and Michigan State University.
Finally, Randy is well-known for being a leader on major social issues. He was a staunch supporter of the 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, which upheld First Amendment protections for video game developers, and he has continued to speak out on the importance of free artistic expression. Meanwhile, in 2017 and then again in 2021, Randy and Gearbox joined top Texas businesses in advocating against discriminatory anti-transgender bills in the state legislature. He received the Equality Texas Business Leadership Award in 2019 for his advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and for fostering an LGBTQ+-friendly workplace at Gearbox.