A
post on Kotaku says Gearbox Software is rewarding employees smaller than
promised bonuses, quoting anonymous sources within the company as saying this
goes back on promises they were made about how they would benefit from the
success of
Borderlands 3. They say the staff splits 40% of the company's
royalties in exchange for lower base salaries than the industry standard, but
that these bonuses had dwindled in recent years due to the failures of releases
like
Aliens: Colonial Marines and
Battleborn. Word is: "Several
Gearbox employees told Kotaku that company management promised them six-figure
bonuses following the launch of Borderlands 3. The more years they’d been with
the company, the larger the check. This vision of financial success helped
Gearbox’s developers get through many long nights and weekends working on the
game." The report goes on to say that sales projections were off-base, expenses
were up after the opening of a second studio in Canada, and the game's
profitability suffered due to the cost of changing from the Unreal 3 to the
Unreal 4 engine during development, estimating that Borderlands 3 needed to earn
$140 million before bonuses kicked in. They add: "Pitchford also told Gearbox
developers that if they weren’t happy with the royalty system, they were welcome
to quit, according to those who were in the meeting. He did not attribute the
diminished bonuses to the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to economic
uncertainty and pay cuts in many other fields. He did say that he hoped to get
more money to employees as an advance from 2K on future royalties." Kotaku also
has an official response to the story from Gearbox, which is reproduced below in
its entirety:
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.