video game industry founded february 16 1999 ; 17 years ago 1999 02 16 founders randy pitchford brian martel stephen bahl landon montgomery rob heironimus headquarters frisco texas united states area served worldwide products borderlands series brothers in arms series number of employees 350 divisions gearbox publishing website gearboxsoftware.com gearbox software llc is an american video game development company based in frisco texas . it was established in 1999 by developers from companies such as 3d realms and bethesda softworks with one of the founders randy pitchford as ceo . the company initially created expansions for the valve corporation game half life then ported that game and others to console platforms . in 2005 gearbox launched its first independent set of games brothers in arms on console and mobile devices . it became their flagship franchise and spun off a comic book series television documentary books and action figures . their second original game series borderlands was released in 2009 and by 2015 had sold over 26 million copies . the company also owns the intellectual property of duke nukem and homeworld . contents 1 history 1.1 acquiring duke nukem 1.2 aliens colonial marines controversy 1.3 gearbox studio qu bec 1.4 other stories 2 games 2.1 half life 2.2 brothers in arms 2.3 borderlands series 2.4 duke nukem series 2.5 battleborn 3 technology 4 list of video games 4.1 1999 2009 4.2 2010 present 5 references 6 external links history edit gearbox software was founded on february 16 1999 1 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 . they 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 they 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 blue shift . branching out to other publishers they pursued additional port work each game being released with additional content but this time from console to pc . these projects included their first non first person shooter 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 james bond 007 nightfire for electronic arts also occurred during the company s initial 5 year period . in 2005 they 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 . in 2008 brothers in arms hell s highway was released . 2007 brought announcements of new projects based on licensed film intellectual properties 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 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 they would be helming a new version of rhythm game samba de amigo for the wii a departure from their signature first person shooter titles . 6 acquiring duke nukem edit 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 software s ceo randy pitchford announced that the company was working on yet another major unannounced title hinting that it was huge . 7 on september 3 2010 it was announced through their twitter feed that they are behind duke nukem forever . 8 since 2009 allen blum the co designer of duke nukem 3d and his development team are housed at gearbox software under the name of triptych games . the team worked on the game in their own homes before gearbox software decided to collaborate . in june 2011 duke nukem forever was released and received negative critical reception on release with most of the criticism directed towards the unfinished rushed state of the game . 9 10 despite the criticism the game topped the charts on release and made a profit for its distributor take two interactive . 11 aliens colonial marines controversy edit in february 2013 an anonymous source reported to destructoid that gearbox had been taking people and resources off aliens colonial marines to put them to work on borderlands and duke nukem forever and yet was still collecting full payments from sega as if they were working on aliens colonial marines . when sega discovered this misconduct they canceled colonial marines which led to the game s protracted development ; at some point in 2008 sega temporarily pulled the plug on the game ... they caught wind of gearbox shifting resources despite still collecting milestone checks as if the team were full size and lying to sega and 2k about the number of people working on each project . this led to the round of layoffs at gearbox in late 2008 . 12 the game drew additional controversy due to the accusations that much of the game s development was not by gearbox software but was outsourced to other developers in order to compensate for mismanagement on behalf of gearbox . while sega initially denied that any such outsourcing occurred sources claimed that developers demiurge studios and nerve software were responsible for the game s downloadable content while timegate studios was responsible for the majority of the game s campaign and were unable to create the planned beta version on schedule despite several delays . this caused the game to be rushed through redesigns certification and shipping despite being in a largely unfinished state . 13 a class action lawsuit filed in april 2013 by roger damion perrine and john locke alleged that gearbox and sega falsely advertised aliens colonial marines by showing demos at trade shows such as pax and e3 that did not accurately represent the final product . sega and the plaintiffs reached a settlement in late 2014 wherein sega agreed to pay 1.25 million to the class . a motion for preliminary approval of the class settlement was pending as of january 2015 . gearbox has not agreed to settle and the plaintiffs continue to litigate claims against the company . 14 on april 5 2013 sega confirmed that the wii u port of the game was cancelled due to poor reception of the xbox 360 and playstation 3 versions of the game . 15 also in april gearbox acquired the homeworld franchise from thq during its bankruptcy auction . 16 in may 2013 it was reported that timegate studios filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy . 17 gearbox studio qu bec edit in december 2015 video game news sites are reporting that gearbox is opening a second development studio in quebec city canada . 18 the studio will be run by former volta director sebastien caisse and former activision art director pierre andre dery . while little details about the studio s project s are revealed it is announced that the team will grow to at least 100 and that it will develop original aaa titles . 19 the core team is built around former assassin s creed skylanders and call of duty developers . other stories edit in june 2013 3d realms sued gearbox for unpaid royalties . 20 in september 2013 3drealms dropped the suit with founder scott miller explaining it as a misunderstanding on their part . 21 in july 2013 gearbox announced plans to rerelease homeworld and homeworld 2 in high definition for modern pc platforms in addition to making it available through digital distributors . 22 in february 2014 gearbox filed a lawsuit against 3d realms for attempting to make another duke nukem game without the consent of the company . 23 in july 2014 randy pitchford formally contested the aliens colonial marines class action lawsuit stating the game had cost them millions of their own money and the advertising was solely the fault of the publisher . 24 games edit half life edit main article half life series gearbox has developed a total of six games in the half life series the expansion packs opposing force and blue shift ; ports of half life for dreamcast which included 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 . brothers in arms edit main article brothers in arms series during their fourth year 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 engine 2 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 them 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 engine 3 from epic games to replace the unreal engine 2 technology used in previous games and grew its internal development teams to handle the demands of next generation technology and content . 25 brothers in arms hell s highway was the first new title to be announced continuing the company s flagship franchise . 26 brothers in arms hell s highway was launched in september 2008 . by 2008 the 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 . borderlands series edit main article borderlands series after the completion of brothers in arms earned in blood gearbox began working on their second original game borderlands . first revealed in the september 2007 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 three playable 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 it was revealed in pc gamer magazine that they had changed the graphical style and added the fourth player character . released in 2009 borderlands is billed as a role playing shooter a first person shooter with role playing elements and demonstrates gearbox s continued support for the unreal engine 3 . following the unexpected 27 success of the first borderlands which sold between three 28 to four and a half million copies since release 29 creative director mike neumann stated that there was a chance of a borderlands 2 being created adding that the decision seems like a no brainer . 30 on august 2 2011 the game was officially confirmed and titled as borderlands 2 . the first look at the game was shown at gamescom 2011 and an extensive preview was included in