Borderlands and Battleborn CEO interview gives his excuse for not developing for Nintendo Switch.
Randy Pitchford Talks Nintendo Switch, 'Overwatch' and Being Fearless
You've been in the news this past week about your Nintendo Switch comments on Twitter. What happened with you and Nintendo? Because it sounds like there was some initial enthusiasm on your part.
I love Nintendo and I think the Switch is awesome. I can't wait. I've been a Nintendo fan my entire life, and literally the first game my wife and I played together when we were teenagers was on the NES. One of the things I've struggled with with Nintendo is I've always loved their portable experience, but I've always hated that the best Nintendo has to offer goes on their console. From the moment I had a Game Boy up through the most recent iterations of the DS, I've loved having that Nintendo portable with me that I can game with, with a really high quality game experience wherever I go. But I've hated that it's always felt a little compromised compared to the big bets Nintendo would make on their console platform.
Well, now that's one and the same. The very best that Nintendo has to offer as creators will exist simultaneously in console and portable versions, which I think is amazing and exciting. A bunch of people mentioned to me that I've gotten some attention for something. Sometimes, when I go to the bathroom, I'll get on Twitter and I'll just kind of look at what people are tweeting at me and I'll sometimes respond to some of them.
Somebody asked me, "Hey, is there any chance of Borderlands coming to the Switch?" and I said "Probably not." I don't remember my exact words, but [I said] we were talking to them, but I think they have other priorities. And it's not a slight, they've got to drive their business. Nintendo tends to be at their best when they're giving us their best experiences with their properties. I think there might be some scenarios where if the Switch becomes a place where there's a huge number of customers, and it doesn't compromise the experience that we're making – there could be a scenario where us or Take-Two and 2K decide to take the effort to make it happen. But we can't really think about that right now. And Nintendo, I think wisely, can't prioritize forcing that to happen. I think they're better off. What it would take for them to guarantee that we exist on the Switch would be better spent by them doing the things they're best at. It wasn't meant as a slight, it's just the reality of priorities.
Does that mean you felt like you weren't able to get an arrangement that was mutually beneficial between both of you? Is that why the talks kind of petered out?
Some of that depends on what game you're talking about. If you're talking about the big franchises we have that Take-Two has been publishing for us, a lot of that business-level stuff is out of my hands. When we commit to Take-Two to be a publisher, it becomes their mission to figure out what arrangements are made with various partners for how it reaches the world.
Nintendo, in my opinion... they're more awesome toward third parties than I've ever experienced them, so I'm afraid anything I say here's going to sound like a slight. But it's still not enough of an engagement to force things to happen, that wouldn't happen just naturally. If that makes sense.
It totally makes sense. Ever since the Super Nintendo days, it feels like third parties haven't been a huge priority for Nintendo. They're off doing they're own thing.
And, look it doesn't matter. There's probably a handful of people that would really love to have a great Borderlands experience that you can have on a screen about that size, that you can carry around with you. But most of the people that want the kind of big stuff that we're doing are totally happy to do it on their television with their PlayStations and their Xboxes. And Nintendo's not going to win by trying to take people away from that. They're going to win by offering something that those guys can't offer, which is exactly what they're doing and should be doing. That's where they should dedicate their resources. And I think they're really smart for doing it, and it's kind of what I want from them as a gamer.
I don't know if I'd call it a mistake, but sometimes, I'll let people in on a little point of view, and then somehow everything gets misconstrued as this, like, horrible competition, or this Game of Thrones scenario. It's like Jesus, man, we're all just trying to entertain the world and everybody's just doing the best they can. Everybody tends to get along on the industry level, especially when we have means of collaborating. It bugs me that I can make a random reply to a random guy when, I'm just saying, "No, they have other priorities." And they should. Anyone who's smartly looking at it thinks that makes a lot of sense. But as a consequence of folks reading into that, somebody probably distracted some people that are probably pretty busy at Nintendo for a minute to think about this and wonder what I meant by it. We shouldn't be spending our mindshare on that. That's what fukking politicians should be doing. Not gamemakers. We should be focused on what matters, which is creating good experiences for people.
Randy Pitchford Talks Nintendo Switch, 'Overwatch' and Being Fearless
You've been in the news this past week about your Nintendo Switch comments on Twitter. What happened with you and Nintendo? Because it sounds like there was some initial enthusiasm on your part.
I love Nintendo and I think the Switch is awesome. I can't wait. I've been a Nintendo fan my entire life, and literally the first game my wife and I played together when we were teenagers was on the NES. One of the things I've struggled with with Nintendo is I've always loved their portable experience, but I've always hated that the best Nintendo has to offer goes on their console. From the moment I had a Game Boy up through the most recent iterations of the DS, I've loved having that Nintendo portable with me that I can game with, with a really high quality game experience wherever I go. But I've hated that it's always felt a little compromised compared to the big bets Nintendo would make on their console platform.
Well, now that's one and the same. The very best that Nintendo has to offer as creators will exist simultaneously in console and portable versions, which I think is amazing and exciting. A bunch of people mentioned to me that I've gotten some attention for something. Sometimes, when I go to the bathroom, I'll get on Twitter and I'll just kind of look at what people are tweeting at me and I'll sometimes respond to some of them.
Somebody asked me, "Hey, is there any chance of Borderlands coming to the Switch?" and I said "Probably not." I don't remember my exact words, but [I said] we were talking to them, but I think they have other priorities. And it's not a slight, they've got to drive their business. Nintendo tends to be at their best when they're giving us their best experiences with their properties. I think there might be some scenarios where if the Switch becomes a place where there's a huge number of customers, and it doesn't compromise the experience that we're making – there could be a scenario where us or Take-Two and 2K decide to take the effort to make it happen. But we can't really think about that right now. And Nintendo, I think wisely, can't prioritize forcing that to happen. I think they're better off. What it would take for them to guarantee that we exist on the Switch would be better spent by them doing the things they're best at. It wasn't meant as a slight, it's just the reality of priorities.
Does that mean you felt like you weren't able to get an arrangement that was mutually beneficial between both of you? Is that why the talks kind of petered out?
Some of that depends on what game you're talking about. If you're talking about the big franchises we have that Take-Two has been publishing for us, a lot of that business-level stuff is out of my hands. When we commit to Take-Two to be a publisher, it becomes their mission to figure out what arrangements are made with various partners for how it reaches the world.
Nintendo, in my opinion... they're more awesome toward third parties than I've ever experienced them, so I'm afraid anything I say here's going to sound like a slight. But it's still not enough of an engagement to force things to happen, that wouldn't happen just naturally. If that makes sense.
It totally makes sense. Ever since the Super Nintendo days, it feels like third parties haven't been a huge priority for Nintendo. They're off doing they're own thing.
And, look it doesn't matter. There's probably a handful of people that would really love to have a great Borderlands experience that you can have on a screen about that size, that you can carry around with you. But most of the people that want the kind of big stuff that we're doing are totally happy to do it on their television with their PlayStations and their Xboxes. And Nintendo's not going to win by trying to take people away from that. They're going to win by offering something that those guys can't offer, which is exactly what they're doing and should be doing. That's where they should dedicate their resources. And I think they're really smart for doing it, and it's kind of what I want from them as a gamer.
I don't know if I'd call it a mistake, but sometimes, I'll let people in on a little point of view, and then somehow everything gets misconstrued as this, like, horrible competition, or this Game of Thrones scenario. It's like Jesus, man, we're all just trying to entertain the world and everybody's just doing the best they can. Everybody tends to get along on the industry level, especially when we have means of collaborating. It bugs me that I can make a random reply to a random guy when, I'm just saying, "No, they have other priorities." And they should. Anyone who's smartly looking at it thinks that makes a lot of sense. But as a consequence of folks reading into that, somebody probably distracted some people that are probably pretty busy at Nintendo for a minute to think about this and wonder what I meant by it. We shouldn't be spending our mindshare on that. That's what fukking politicians should be doing. Not gamemakers. We should be focused on what matters, which is creating good experiences for people.
Kingshango
Veteran
Randy Pitchford stole money from Sega to make Aliens Colonial Marines, fukk him.
Human Resource Machine 
Red Shield
Global Domination
Randy Pitchford stole money from Sega to make Aliens Colonial Marines, fukk him.
You got that mixed up.
He pawned the development of Colonial Marines off to some C-List budget studio. And pocketed the huge difference to make Borderlands 2. I think the C-List studio went out of business too. And Sega got a shyt Aliens game
fukk Randy... that trailer was so damn hype
Kingshango
Veteran
You got that mixed up.
He pawned the development of Colonial Marines off to some C-List budget studio. And pocketed the huge difference to make Borderlands 2. I think the C-List studio went out of business too. And Sega got a shyt Aliens game
fukk Randy... that trailer was so damn hype
And that Battleborn game flopped so hard he started to promote the game with pornographic fan art from a Reddit section he might have created himself.
Red Shield
Global Domination
And that Battleborn game flopped so hard he started to promote the game with pornographic fan art from a Reddit section he might have created himself.
That shyt was pathetic
This shyt right here is the best thing to come out of this. Didn't know M83 had this type of heat
He should have delayed to 2017. Blizzard knew exactly what they were doin when they moved Overwatch's release up. surprised they haven't went FTP yet.
firemanBk
The Manslayer
That whole situation was nuts. They flat out fukking lied about the content of the game. First off, that 'gameplay' trailer featured about zero seconds of actual gameplay. Then in interviews, they're talking about amazing advanced AI like we've never seen before then the game comes out and enemies are running into walls or just charging straight into gunfireYou got that mixed up.
He pawned the development of Colonial Marines off to some C-List budget studio. And pocketed the huge difference to make Borderlands 2. I think the C-List studio went out of business too. And Sega got a shyt Aliens game
fukk Randy... that trailer was so damn hype
Red Shield
Global Domination
That whole situation was nuts. They flat out fukking lied about the content of the game. First off, that 'gameplay' trailer featured about zero seconds of actual gameplay. Then in interviews, they're talking about amazing advanced AI like we've never seen before then the game comes out and enemies are running into walls or just charging straight into gunfire
Well they had to come up with someway for someone to buy that stinker
But damn I hope someone does a Colonial Marines game in the future. 4player Co-op, limited ammo, yelling into the mic to tell dude to hurry up and weld the damn door. Then they crawl outta the vents, you fire your gun, one of your boys gets pulled up into the ceiling, you die
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
Zelda look like it run smooth as fukk on the go and it still looks really good graphics wise off the dock 
PikaDaDon
Thunderbolt Them Suckers
That shyt was pathetic
This shyt right here is the best thing to come out of this. Didn't know M83 had this type of heat
He should have delayed to 2017. Blizzard knew exactly what they were doin when they moved Overwatch's release up. surprised they haven't went FTP yet.
I find it interesting that there are ALOT of Overwatch clones out there. Like so many people tried to copy that shyt it's hilarious.
Red Shield
Global Domination
Besides Paladins and Battleborn(and I think battleborn was announced before Overwatch)
what other clones are you talking about
