Gearbox is Allegedly Withholding Bonuses for Employees

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t exactly have the best opinion of Gearbox, but for as much as I dislike their booger of a CEO Randy Pitchford, I at least liked the fact they seemed to treat their employees well, generally. However, according to a report from our pals at Kotaku, they’ve decided to stop doing that.

Here’s the deal: the folks at Gearbox are paid less than the industry standard, but in return, they get the unique benefit of profit sharing. Specifically, while 60 percent of the sales their games make goes back to the company, 40 percent is given to the employees as bonuses, which can add up to six figures per check. The story goes that folks have been able to use that money to buy houses, which is often used for headhunting developers.

However, even though Borderlands 3 sold like gangbusters, anonymous sources within the company are reporting that they’re being robbed of their well-earned paychecks. Ol’ Randy had a chat with his employees where he explained that the bonus checks would be significantly smaller than they might have hoped for, and if they didn’t like it, they could quit. A pretty callous thing to say in the middle of a global economic depression.

Anyway. Gearbox sent Kotaku the following statement when asked for comment, which isn’t a comment at all:

Borderlands 3 represents an incredible value to gamers and an incredible achievement by the team at Gearbox Software. Our studio is talent-led and we believe strongly in everyone sharing in profitability. The talent at Gearbox enjoys participation in the upside of our games – to our knowledge, the most generous royalty bonus system in AAA. Since this program began, Gearbox talent has earned over $100M in royalty bonuses above and beyond traditional compensation.

In the most recent pay period Gearbox talent enjoyed news that Borderlands 3, having earned revenue exceeding the largest investment ever made by the company into a single video game, had officially become a profitable video game and the talent at Gearbox that participates in the royalty bonus system has now earned their first royalty bonus on that profit. Additionally, a forecast update was given to the talent at Gearbox that participates in the royalty bonus to set expectations for the coming quarters. Gearbox is a private company that does not issue forward looking statements to the public, but we do practice transparency within our own family.

So yeah. If you need a new reason to start hatin’ on Gearbox, here it is.