Gearbox Software

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Gearbox Software is a video game developer founded by Randy Pitchford, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, Brian Martel, and Rob Heironimus in January 1999. They are best known for a number of high-profile PC and console games such as Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood, Halo: Combat Evolved for PC, and the Half-Life expansions Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

The studio is located in Plano, Texas (near Dallas, Texas) and currently employs over 100 developers. The developer has also worked with many other studios on other projects such as Ubisoft, Sega, Microsoft Game Studios, Electronic Arts, Activision, and Vivendi Universal Games. They are currently developing original titles for next generation video game consoles, portable systems, and Windows Vista, including Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, an untitled Alien game, and at least one other unannounced project.

1 Games developed by Gearbox Software
2 Gearbox Software trivia
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Games developed by Gearbox Software

Half-Life: Opposing Force — PC expansion (October 1999).
Half-Life — Dreamcast (unreleased) — Includes Half-Life: Blue Shift.
Counter-Strike — PC (November 2000) — Retail version, co-developed with Valve Software — Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force CTF
Half-Life: Blue Shift — PC expansion (July 2001) — Includes Half-Life High Definition Pack and Half-Life: Opposing Force.
Half-Life — PlayStation 2 (November 2001) — Includes Half-Life: Decay.
Half-Life: Decay — PC expansion (unreleased), avalible on PS2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 — PC (October 2002).
James Bond 007: Nightfire — PC (November 2002).
Halo: Combat Evolved — PC, Mac (September 2003) — Co-developed with Bungie Studios.
Counter-Strike: Condition Zero — PC (March 2004) — Co-developed with Ritual Entertainment and Valve Software.
Halo: Custom Edition — PC expansion for Halo: Combat Evolved (May 2004).
Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 — PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 (March 2005).
Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood — PC, Xbox, PlayStation 2 (October 2005).
Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood — Mobile Phones (October 2005) — Co-developed with Gameloft.
Brothers In Arms 3D — Mobile Phones (April 2006) — Co-developed with Gameloft.
Brothers In Arms D-Day — PSP (December 2006) — Co-developed with Ubisoft.
Brothers In Arms (for Wii) — Wii (TBA 2007).
Brothers In Arms: DS — Nintendo DS (TBA 2007).
Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway — PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (TBA 2007).
Untitled Alien FPS game — PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 (TBA 2009^[1]).

Game Compilations featuring Gearbox Software games:

Half-Life Platinum Collection — PC (November 2000) — Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Counter-Strike.
Half-Life Platinum Pack — PC (August 2002) — Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and Counter-Strike.
The Movie Collection — PC (October 2003) — Includes James Bond 007: Nightfire.
EA Games Collection — PC (September 2004) — Includes James Bond 007: Nightfire.
Half-Life 1 Anthology — PC (September 2005) — Includes Half-Life: Opposing Force, and Half-Life: Blue Shift.
Counter-Strike 1 Anthology — PC (September 2005) — Includes Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

[edit] Gearbox Software trivia

Gearbox Software was founded by five members of the content team from defunct developer Rebel Boat Rocker: Randy Pitchford, Stephen Bahl, Landon Montgomery, Brian Martel, and Rob Heironimus. Pitchford and Martel previously worked together at 3DRealms, and Montgomery previously worked at Bethesda Softworks.

Prior to Half-Life 2, Gearbox developed or helped develop every Half-Life game except for the original PC Half-Life (Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike, Condition Zero, Half-Life PS2/Decay, Half-Life Dreamcast).

While modeling guns for Counter-Strike, a Gearbox artist carried an Airsoft rifle, to use as a reference, into the elevator of the building housing the development studio. An employee of one of the other businesses in the building, a bank, saw the gun under his coat. Believing it to be a real firearm, the bank teller called the police to tell them the building was being robbed or under attack by terrorists. It wasn't until the SWAT team was called in and began a floor-to-floor search for the "terrorist" that the mistake was realized.

Gearbox employees have worked on 8 of the 10 most successful FPS franchises ever developed (Doom, Quake, Halo, Half-Life, Unreal, Counter-Strike, Duke Nukem, and James Bond - but not Battlefield or Rainbow Six).