Blade Runner game would have destroyed Gearbox says Pitchford
License "would've been the end of Gearbox" claims Aliens: Colonial Marines dev
Creating a game adaption of classic science fiction movie Blade Runner "would've been the end of Gearbox", claims CEO Randy Pitchford in a new interview.
Speaking in the Official PlayStation Magazine, Pitchford claimed that the company had a list of dream properties in 2008 and that it "got them all". Post 2008 the developer has annouced Sega sequel Samba de Amigo, movie tie-in Aliens: Colonial Marines and the release of Duke Nukem Forever.
"Blade Runner was on [the list]," says Pitchford. "We had it too and we were like, 'No, we can't.' That game would've cost like $40m to make and sold about 600,000 units - and that would have been the end of us.
"There's no rational business model that would have allowed that to make sense. If we'd made it with a business model that did work, it would not have been the Blade Runner game we all would have wanted."
In the interview, as related by CVG, Pitchford revealed that fellow Gearbox co-founder Brian Martell met with Alien and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott to discuss plans for the game.
Two video games have been created based on the film, the first a contemporary tie-in for 8-bit computers that for licensing reasons was officially based only on the film score. In 1997 Command & Conquer creators Westwood Studios created a graphic adventure 'side story' inspired by the film.