Randy Pitchford Says Using PC Versions of Games to Make Trailers for Multiplatform Titles Is “Kind of a Trick”

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford finds himself having to answer a bunch of questions about Aliens: Colonial Marines once again, and it seems like people aren’t going to let him off easily. In a recent interview with Eurogamer, Pitchford revealed, while attempting to answer a question about Colonial Marines, that publishers “always” use PC versions of video games to make trailers for multiplatform titles. While this won’t surprise a lot of people, it’s still rare to hear someone from the industry say outright that this is “kind of a trick.”

When Eurogamer quizzed him about the game’s graphical quality, Pitchford said that he thought it was “great.” “Really?” asked the publication, to which he responded by saying:

Yeah. So one decision that was tricky was, there’s platform parity issues, so a PS3 is not as strong as an Xbox 360, which is not as strong as a state of the art PC. So if you play the game on a PC you’re getting the best graphics. And whenever they make trailers, they always use the PC version. But it’s kind of a trick, the fact that PC content is used to market the game when there’s different versions. Pick any game.

When asked why he’d do something like that knowing that it’s a trick, Pitchford said that he doesn’t personally do it because he’s a developer, not a publisher, and he isn’t responsible for marketing games but he has expressed his concerns about game representation.

Well I don’t do it. I’m not a publisher. I’m a developer. I’m actually not responsible for any marketing. They’ll put me up there and ask me to talk about the game I’m working on, and I’m excited. I don’t do anything I’m not thrilled about. So you’ll feel the energy come off of me.

And in fact there was one point… I don’t want to get into that. But sometimes I get kind of concerned about how they’re representing the game and I try to make a point.

Well, there you have it – straight from the horse’s mouth. 

Gearbox was eventually dropped from the Aliens: Colonial Marines lawsuit, the details for which can be read here. And if you’re interested in reading what Pitchford has to say in the game’s defense for the billionth time, check out the full interview here

[Source: Eurogamer]

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