Earlier this year, Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, makers of the Borderlands games, was accused of pocketing $12 million of Borderlands 2 development funds, hosting a party where adults exposed themselves to minors, and leaving a USB drive with company materials and porn in a Medieval Times restaurant. Dallas County Court has now dismissed the case, with both sides issuing a statement saying "it was of the opinion of counsel that the evidence exonerated Randy Pitchford from the allegations against him".
The claims against Pitchford came out in a countersuit made by Wade Callender, Gearbox's former general counsel, filed in January 2019. He was suing Gearbox and Pitchford in response to their own lawsuit against Callender filed in November 2018, in which they claimed Callender had misused company funds.
The full statement says that "Upon review of all the evidence in the case, it was of the opinion of counsel that the evidence exonerated Randy Pitchford from the allegations against him; all misunderstandings between the parties have been corrected, and apologies were exchanged. Because the parties are mutually bound by confidentiality, no additional statements will be forthcoming."
Pitchford did admit to leaving a USB drive in a Medieval Times restaurant that included a video of a cam girl masturbating. "It's a woman who is masturbating," Pitchford said on his magic podcast The Piff Pod (via Kotaku), "and when she has some experience that appears as if she's having an orgasm, a huge amount of fluid comes out of her vagina. This is not a sex worker-this is a fucking magician. Some kid, an employee of the Medieval Times, discovered this memory stick, took it home, and accessed it because it was before we were password-protecting, and discovered secrets of my company and future games in development, and also discovered the pornography. And it was barely legal porn. This girl's handle was 'Only 18.'"
Pitchford denied the accusation that he held parties at his home in which adults exposed themselves to minors. Callender claimed this happened in the theatre built in Pitchford's home, the Peacock Theatre. As a note of disclosure, in August 2018 I was in a group of journalists at Quakecon who attended a party at Pitchford's home and saw one of his shows in the Peacock Theatre.
While the court has yet to accept the motion of dismissal, the lawsuits have been cancelled from the court's dockets, suggesting it's only a matter of process. And, with the statement noting a mutually binding confidentiality agreement, we'll likely not learn any more about what happened to spark this disagreement.
Featured Image Credit: 2K Games