October 21, 2009 - 8:44am
Luke Wallace
GameStops around the country stayed open until after midnight last night to welcome the arrival of a the new game, Borderlands. Two GameStops out of the thousands around the country, though, had something a little extra. One of the GameStops in Plano, Texas, had over a dozen employees from the Plano-based developer. They were there to meet the fans, and autograph anything people wanted.
The night started around 9, when the management ordered pizza, and opened up some copies of Borderlands to put in demo stations. There were four-player setups in both Xbox 360 and PS3 flavors, along with a couple single player stations setup. Throughout the night, gamers would share the play time and watch each other.
Around 10 pm, a few Gearbox employees began to trickle in, with the crowd growing over the next hour or so. All in all, about 15 employees showed up, mostly developers, who immediately jumped into interacting with everyone. They answered questions about their involvment in the game, and signed game covers, manuals, guides, posters, t-shirts, and anything else the fans could offer up. They played down their own celebrity status, but seemed to enjoy themselves.
At some point during the night, a small man dressed as the iconic cover art character began making the rounds, getting his picture taken, and posing for the fans. We were told the costume creator was also responsible for the Barney costume, but it's hard to tell which is more scarey.
At 5 to midnight, everyone who had purchased the game lined up to receive their discs, completing their own personal Collector's Edition. Less than 100 copies of the game were sold, so everyone in attendance definitely has a little piece of history spinning in their console.
Next month's launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will definitely eclipse the night in numbers, with about 450 pre-orders at this single location already. Borderlands can only launch once though, and for a lot of people, it will be a night they will never forget.
For more pictures, visit our Borderlands Launch gallery.
Buy Borderlands at Amazon.com
richerd193 wrote:
Gearbox was founded in January 1999 by five members of the content team from the defunct developer Rebel Boat Rocker: Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, and Rob Heironimus. Before Rebel Boat Rocker, Pitchford and Martel previously worked together at 3D Realms, and Montgomery previously worked at Bethesda Softworks.
Gearbox Software started with developing expansions to Valve Software's Half-Life. Porting Half-Life to console platforms (each with new game content) followed, building the company's experience in console game-making, in addition to enhancing and building upon the successful Counter-Strike branch of the Half-Life franchise. Prior to Half-Life 2, Gearbox had developed or helped develop every Half-Life expansion game or port, including Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life for the Sony PlayStation 2 (including Half-Life Decay), and Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast (including Half-Life Blue Shift). Branching out to other publishers, Gearbox pursued additional port work, each game being released with additional content, but this time from console to PC. These projects included Gearbox's first non-FPS, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved, forging new publisher relationships with Activision and Microsoft Game Studios respectively. Additional new development, in the form of a PC game in the James Bond franchise (Nightfire) for Electronic Arts, also occurred during the company's initial 5-year period.
In 2005, Gearbox Software launched an original property of their creation, Brothers in Arms, with the release of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 on the Xbox, PC and Playstation 2. Later that year a sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, was launched. Both games earned numerous awards and topped sales charts. In 2006, the development of Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway was announced (later released in 2008).
2007 brought announcements of new projects based on licensed film IPs, including the crime drama Heat[2] and the science-fiction classic Aliens.[3] In the September 2007 issue of Game Informer, a new game franchise was revealed, the sci-fi shooter/vehicle combat game Borderlands,[4] after which Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford mentioned in an online interview that development on the Heat game had not yet begun, as the planned development partner for the project had gone under.[5] This was followed by an announcement by Sega that Gearbox would be helming a new version of rhythm game Samba de Amigo for the Wii, a departure from their signature FPS titles.[6]
In 2008, Sega announced its license of the Aliens franchise and a development deal with Gearbox Software to create Aliens: Colonial Marines. Also in 2008, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the company was working on yet another major unannounced title, hinting that it was "huge".[7] This could have referred to their now successful 2009 release, Borderlands.
[edit]Game series[edit]Half-LifeMain article: Half-Life (series)Gearbox has developed a total of six games in the Half-Life series: Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift (expansion packs); ports of Half-Life for Dreamcast (which included Half-Life: Blue Shift) and Half-Life for PlayStation 2 (which included Half-Life: Decay); they also did a large amount of work on both the retail release of Counter-Strike and the main portion of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
[edit]Brothers in ArmsMain articles: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's HighwayDuring their fourth year (2003), Gearbox began secretly working on their first internally-driven and independently-owned game: Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30. Developed for both PC and Microsoft's Xbox console, and built with the Unreal 2 engine, this game was released in March 2005. The sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, followed seven months later. The series was published by Ubisoft, who supported both games with PlayStation 2 versions, and later worked with Gearbox to develop Brothers in Arms games for portable systems (mobile phones, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS) and the Wii home console.In 2005, Gearbox licensed the Unreal 3 engine from Epic Games,[8] to replace the Unreal 2 engine technology used in previous games,[8] and grew its internal development teams to handle the demands of next-generation technology and content. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was the first new title to be announced,[9] continuing the company's flagship franchise.Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway was launched in September 2008. By 2008, the Brothers in Arms franchise also spun off a comic book series, a two-part television documentary, a line of action figures, and a novelization and non-fiction history book.
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richerd193 wrote:
Gearbox was founded in January 1999 by five members of the content team from the defunct developer Rebel Boat Rocker: Randy Pitchford, Brian Martel, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, and Rob Heironimus. Before Rebel Boat Rocker, Pitchford and Martel previously worked together at 3D Realms, and Montgomery previously worked at Bethesda Softworks.
Gearbox Software started with developing expansions to Valve Software's Half-Life. Porting Half-Life to console platforms (each with new game content) followed, building the company's experience in console game-making, in addition to enhancing and building upon the successful Counter-Strike branch of the Half-Life franchise. Prior to Half-Life 2, Gearbox had developed or helped develop every Half-Life expansion game or port, including Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Half-Life for the Sony PlayStation 2 (including Half-Life Decay), and Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast (including Half-Life Blue Shift). Branching out to other publishers, Gearbox pursued additional port work, each game being released with additional content, but this time from console to PC. These projects included Gearbox's first non-FPS, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved, forging new publisher relationships with Activision and Microsoft Game Studios respectively. Additional new development, in the form of a PC game in the James Bond franchise (Nightfire) for Electronic Arts, also occurred during the company's initial 5-year period.
In 2005, Gearbox Software launched an original property of their creation, Brothers in Arms, with the release of Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 on the Xbox, PC and Playstation 2. Later that year a sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, was launched. Both games earned numerous awards and topped sales charts. In 2006, the development of Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway was announced (later released in 2008).
2007 brought announcements of new projects based on licensed film IPs, including the crime drama Heat[2] and the science-fiction classic Aliens.[3] In the September 2007 issue of Game Informer, a new game franchise was revealed, the sci-fi shooter/vehicle combat game Borderlands,[4] after which Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford mentioned in an online interview that development on the Heat game had not yet begun, as the planned development partner for the project had gone under.[5] This was followed by an announcement by Sega that Gearbox would be helming a new version of rhythm game Samba de Amigo for the Wii, a departure from their signature FPS titles.[6]
In 2008, Sega announced its license of the Aliens franchise and a development deal with Gearbox Software to create Aliens: Colonial Marines. Also in 2008, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the company was working on yet another major unannounced title, hinting that it was "huge".[7] This could have referred to their now successful 2009 release, Borderlands.
[edit]Game series[edit]Half-LifeMain article: Half-Life (series)Gearbox has developed a total of six games in the Half-Life series: Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift (expansion packs); ports of Half-Life for Dreamcast (which included Half-Life: Blue Shift) and Half-Life for PlayStation 2 (which included Half-Life: Decay); they also did a large amount of work on both the retail release of Counter-Strike and the main portion of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
[edit]Brothers in ArmsMain articles: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's HighwayDuring their fourth year (2003), Gearbox began secretly working on their first internally-driven and independently-owned game: Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30. Developed for both PC and Microsoft's Xbox console, and built with the Unreal 2 engine, this game was released in March 2005. The sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, followed seven months later. The series was published by Ubisoft, who supported both games with PlayStation 2 versions, and later worked with Gearbox to develop Brothers in Arms games for portable systems (mobile phones, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS) and the Wii home console.In 2005, Gearbox licensed the Unreal 3 engine from Epic Games,[8] to replace the Unreal 2 engine technology used in previous games,[8] and grew its internal development teams to handle the demands of next-generation technology and content. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was the first new title to be announced,[9] continuing the company's flagship franchise.Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway was launched in September 2008. By 2008, the Brothers in Arms franchise also spun off a comic book series, a two-part television documentary, a line of action figures, and a novelization and non-fiction history book.
_______________________________________________
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login or register to post comments »