The Developers of Borderlands 3 Are Denied Their Bonuses. How?

Though Borderlands 3 is one of the best-selling games of this year, the developing company supports the immediate developers in a very strange way. The CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, surprised designers, coders and other makers of the game by telling them not to expect any noticeable bonuses but minor checks.

The reward seems incomparable with their contribution to the success of the game. Given that the salary in Gearbox is much lower than the industry’s average, and massive bonuses equalize it, this seems unjust. Even more unjust is the fact that the employees are not allowed to speak on the issue. Those who disagree were told they had an option to quit.

Borderlands 3 is the first major success of Gearbox after a series of failures. It took thousands of working hours, and now it requires constant support. On the other hand, this hugely successful game is (according to the CEO) way more expensive than expected: about $140M that the game still hasn’t recouped.

The official statement did follow. It didn’t reveal anything new, though. The company stated that it had always had the biggest bonus system in the industry and admitted that this year the bonuses were significantly smaller for certain reasons (not mentioning COVID-19 at all).