Gearbox turned down offer to develop "Call of Duty"-Sequel

Exactly. Gearbox knew that Activision would NEVER let them make huge changes, which is why they knew the morale would be low.+1 for Gearbox for having self respect.

Yeah activision would definetly not let gearbox innovate or take chances the proof on that is activisions own dev teams they just rehash it and release it although ill cut treyarch some slack but this article is bout gearbox and the fact they have lots of dignity and self respect I hope they continue to see good success and profits also I laughed at the reason why gearbox shut down the offer its really good an the dot a really good reason because ANY dev team can do call of duty all they need to do is the copy and paste, insert new guns, use 360 as lead, make maps, cut out maps for later dlc, and let activision publish and advertise it

I dont know. If acti was willing to reach out to someone like gearbox, chances are they werent doing it to get the same result they could likely get for cheap using one of their in house devs. They probably also knew that there was no way they were gonna be able to pull in a big dev from the outside and expect them to bow down to their every whim.

You really think so? The core gameplay of the early BiA-Games was: "Set guys to suppres, flank, kill" - in endless repetition. Before "Hell's Highway" the storytelling was pathetic war-hero-patriotism. I agree the third one was good, but not better than CoD. "Call of Duty" has gotten atrociously stale but the core gameplay is extremely refined, especially on consoles. Movement, aiming, reaction times etc - this is all extremely well done.

Now "Borderlands 2" - I love the game to death and I've spent more than 70hrs playing it so far. But what's great about "Borderlands 2" is the perfect "carrot on a stick" balance of loot & experience gain combined with an original and fun world. The shooter-mechanics are extremely simplified. So much so that my girlfriend was able to master it in a day (which is great cause now we can play together). "Call of Duty" is way ahead in terms of refined gameplay, IMO. It's just that they take this great core-mechanic and just rehash it over and over and over again.

Call of Duty 20-30 million per game since 2007..
Border land 1-4million per game..

Best selling point of COD Fast paced gameplay at 60fps...far superier feeling than most shooter.

I know Sales doesnt mean everything most of the time but if u sell 20 plus million every bloody year...that means "sale" tell you its one bad ass game that people want.

Everyone hates COD and i am guilty as charged for that, yet most of us still buy it cause no other game provides fast action that doesnt last 30min a game...the game is addictive pure and simple.

Sure the most biggest haters will say its for kids even though it has an 18 plus rated stamped on it. Porn is also 18 plus rated yet most kids watch it in a daily basis but u know wat...porn is still more popular amongs kids than COD could ever hope to be.

Go ahead, press the disagree button...it will prove how many people hate on COD yet they still go buy it. I also like to forcast a prediction. COD will be best selling game 2013 and BO2 DLC will be the best selling DLC on consoles. BO2 will also be the most played game on XBOX Live and PSN. I would also like to predict that this will be disagreed manytimes and the most of the people who press disagree will go and play on COD afterwards and then come back to hate on it on the intenet. If this is true then i am a psychic.

In my opinion, I find them to be an okay-ish Studio.
Their next game Alien Colonial Marines looks/plays rather average at best.

Only thing Gearbox are good at is spinning publicity favourable in their direction...

Wish I was that good at covering up bullshit!

They only finished Duke Nukem Forever. They did it because Randy is friends with many people from 3D Realms, and he used to work there long ago.

They finished the game as more of a favor to them and to Take-Two. I am sure they were self aware that the game wasn't the best, but that's not why they finished up the loose ends.

OK, so in your opinion, name a single thing they have ever done in their entire development history that has been 'creative/talented'??

@1nsomniac

Borderlands 1
Borderlands 2

I'm not sure whether or not Gearbox created the shoot-and-loot rpg/fps, but they definitely revived it and made it amazing. How many fps/rpgs with randomly generated loot games can you name, other than BL1/BL2? I'm betting none, unless you can find some mediocre indie game somewhere on the internet that has poorly replicated it.

It may not be 100% unique and original, but it sure as hell is creative with it's great art design and game mechanics that don't exist in any other shooter. Oh yeah, and it has a hilarious story, something that only comes along once in a great while for video games.

Your opinion is terrible if you honestly think Borderlands 1/2 are "poor quality". I can understand not liking them, I don't like a lot of popular games that many people swoon over, but I can still recognize their quality/greatness. You fail to recognize Borderlands greatness. It's a shame, you're missing out on an amazing game. Give it a fair chance (play it for more than 2 hours), try it again, and you will finally get why so many people love the franchise.