Gearbox Software

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Gearbox Software

Type	Private
Founded	Plano, Texas, USA (1999)
Founder(s)	Randy Pitchford Brian Martel Stephen Bahl Landon Montgomery Rob Heironimus
Headquarters	Plano, Texas, US
Industry	Software & Programming
Employees	126[1]
Website	www.gearboxsoftware.com

Gearbox Software, LLC is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas.

Contents 1 History 2 Game series 2.1 Half-Life 2.2 Brothers in Arms 2.3 Borderlands 3 Technology 4 Internal focus testing 5 Games developed 6 Games currently in development 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

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-Life

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 Arms

During 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.

[edit] Borderlands

This section requires expansion.

After the completion of Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Gearbox began working on their second original game franchise, Borderlands. First revealed in the September 2006 issue of Game Informer, Borderlands was described as 'Mad Max meets Diablo', and its FPS-meets-RPG gameplay was revealed, along with screenshots of the early art style and the first 3 player characters. The gaming press saw the game next at the European GamesCon in 2007, and again at GamesCon and E3 in 2008. In early 2009, Gearbox revealed in PC Gamer magazine that they had changed the graphical style and added the forth player character. Released 2009-10-20, Borderlands is billed as a "role playing shooter" (a first-person shooter with RPG elements), and demonstrates Gearbox's continued support for the Unreal 3 engine.

[edit] Technology

Gearbox has developed using a number of existing game engines for various projects, including GoldSrc, RenderWare, Bungie's Halo, Unreal 2 and Unreal 3. They have completed games on a variety of game platforms, including Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wii and Microsoft Windows.

In 2006, Gearbox partnered with Dell and Intel to provide development computer systems and technology.^[10]

In June 2007, Gearbox purchased a Moven motion capture system that uses non-optical intertia technology,^[11] to augment their existing Vicon optical motion capture system becoming one of the few independent developers with two in-house motion capture capabilities.

In February 2008, it was announced that Gearbox had licensed NaturalMotion's Morpheme software.^[12]

[edit] Internal focus testing

In late 2008, Gearbox Software started doing internal focus testing on their current projects. Kotaku.com posted a link to the application on November 13, 2008. Gamers in the Dallas area have the opportunity to visit their office in Plano, TX and play unreleased games and give feedback.

[edit] Games developed

• Half-Life: Opposing Force – PC expansion (October 1999, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games).
• Half-Life – Dreamcast (unreleased, available on PC) – Includes Half-Life: Blue Shift.
• Counter-Strike – PC (November 2000, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Retail version, co-developed with Valve Software – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force CTF.
• Half-Life: Blue Shift – PC expansion (July 2001, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Includes Half-Life High Definition Pack and Half-Life: Opposing Force.
• Half-Life – PlayStation 2 (November 2001, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Includes Half-Life: Decay.
• Half-Life: Decay – PC expansion (unreleased, available on PS2). Unofficial PC port exists.
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 – PC (October 2002, published by Activision) – Co-developed with Neversoft.
• James Bond 007: Nightfire – PC (November 2002, published by Electronic Arts).
• Halo: Combat Evolved – PC, Mac (September 2003, published by Microsoft Game Studios) – Co-developed with Bungie Studios.
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero – PC (March 2004, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Co-developed with Valve Software, Ritual Entertainment and Turtle Rock Studios.
• Halo: Custom Edition – PC (May 2004, published by Microsoft Game Studios).
• Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 – PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 (March 2005, published by Ubisoft).
• Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood – PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 (October 2005, published by Ubisoft).
• Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood – Mobile Phones (October 2005, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.
• Brothers in Arms: D-Day – PSP (December 2006, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Ubisoft.
• Brothers in Arms DS – Nintendo DS (June 2007, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.
• Brothers in Arms (N-Gage 2.0) – Nokia Mobile Phones (November 2007, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.
• Brothers in Arms: Art of War – Mobile Phones (March 2008, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.
• Samba de Amigo — Wii (September 23, 2008, published by Sega)^[6] – Co-developed with Escalation Studios.
• Brothers in Arms: Double Time – Wii (September 2008, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Demiurge Studios.
• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway – PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (September 2008, published by Ubisoft).
• Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes – iPhone OS (December 2008, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.
• Borderlands – PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (October 2009, published by 2K Games).
• Brothers in Arms: Global Front – iPhone OS (February 2010, published by Ubisoft) – Co-developed with Gameloft.

Game Compilations featuring Gearbox Software games:

• Half-Life Platinum Collection – PC (November 2000, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Counter-Strike.
• Half-Life Platinum Pack – PC (August 2002, published by Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Games) – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and Counter-Strike.
• The Movie Collection – PC (October 2003, published by Electronic Arts) – Includes James Bond 007: Nightfire.
• Counter-Strike – Xbox (November 2003, published by Microsoft Game Studios) – Includes content developed by Gearbox for Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
• EA Games Collection – PC (September 2004, published by Electronic Arts) – Includes James Bond 007: Nightfire.
• Half-Life 1 Anthology – PC (September 2005, published by Valve Software/Electronic Arts) – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Half-Life: Blue Shift.
• Counter-Strike 1 Anthology – PC (September 2005, published by Valve Software/Electronic Arts) – Includes Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
• Valve Complete Pack (online via Steam) – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
• Counter-Strike Complete (online via Steam) – Includes Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.
• Half-Life Complete (online via Steam) – Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift.

[edit] Games currently in development

As of October 2009, the following games are in development at (or under guidance by) Gearbox Software:

• Aliens: Colonial Marines – PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (TBA 2010, published by Sega).^[3]
• 3 mystery games mentioned on the website, one of which is likely Duke Begins.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Gearbox Software website
• Gearboxity - Official Gearbox Software fan site
• Official Gearbox Software forums
• MobyGames profile
• Gearbox Software Focus Testing Application