Randy Pitchford is leaving Gearbox games to focus on Gearbox movies, is still head of Gearbox overall

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A leadership shuffle sees Pitchford helm the company's new film outfit, Gearbox Studios.

Randy Pitchford
(Image credit: Gearbox Software)

Gearbox president and CEO Randy Pitchford is stepping back from games to focus on the company's broader efforts to break into film and TV, as president of the publisher's new Gearbox Studios subsidiary.

Announcing the corporate reshuffle on Twitter, Pitchford explained that veteran chief technology officer Steve Jones will take on his role as president of Gearbox Software. Pitchford ultimately remains CEO and president of Gearbox as a whole, and notes that he'll "continue wearing a creative hat", but that he's moving to develop and grow a new film-focussed side of the company.

That news won't be a shock to anyone who watched Gearbox's E3 show this year which, while light on games, featured plenty of Pitchford awkwardly chasing famous actors across the set of the Borderlands movie and failing to score a high-five off Kevin Hart.

That said, Pitchford does appear to only be running Studios temporarily. His statement notes that he hopes to get the "transmedia" unit to a place where it's largely self-sufficient, at which point it will likely get a new president.

We don't currently know what plans Gearbox Studios has for screen and stream beyond the Borderlands movie, which currently has no set release date. But should that film be a success, what else could we expect from adaptations of Gearbox's games?

An HBO Brothers in Arms mini-series? Battleborn revived as a Saturday-morning cartoon? The Duke Nukem cinematic universe? Erm... maybe that's enough speculation.

Natalie Clayton
Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.