Just when you thought all the controversy surrounding Borderlands 3 has faded away, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to give his two cents on David Eddings’, the original Claptrap voice actor, departure.
There was no “force” – He wanted it (and reveled in it). The issue today is that Mr. Eddings is bitter and disgruntled about having been terminated. He was offered 2x scale, he refused. I don’t want him to do it unless he wants to do it, as motivation affects performance.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 4, 2019
“The issue today is that Mr. Eddings is bitter and disgruntled about having been terminated,” states Pitchford in a Twitter thread discussing Eddings departure. “He was offered two-times scale, he refused. I don’t want him to do it unless he wants to do it, as motivation affects performance.”
Eddings had confirmed he would not be returning as Claptrap on Twitter just a few days prior. “For the first time, I insisted on getting paid for my performance and all of a sudden they couldn’t afford me,” Eddings stated regarding his departure. “Now, I’m not telling them how to run their business but maybe next time they should put the $12M payment from 2K in the Gearbox bank account instead.”
A statement was given to IGN, giving some clarity to the situation. “We offer the opportunity for salaried employees to voice characters in the game, but is not mandatory responsibility to their job requirements,” suggesting that people who already work for Gearbox are offered voice work, but are not required to do so. “In this particular case, now that [Eddings] was no longer an employee, we offered him an industry standard rate, but were not able to reach an agreement.”
Eddings had worked at Gearbox as VP of Business Development for 12 years after leaving in 2017. During this time, he had voiced Claptrap in Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Tales from the Borderlands, in addition to his primary role at Gearbox. He currently works at Rooster Teeth as Head of Game Publishing.
Eddings urged fans not to fret as his “exit from GBX created at least three job opportunities for other people.” The person who has taken over as Claptrap is Jim Foronda who has provided voice work for previous Borderlands games.
Borderlands 3 is set to launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 13. You can check out our preview to see what our first impressions were of Gearbox’s return to the popular loot shooter. We also interviewed Gearbox Game Designer Kevin Powell about the game and whether Claptrap would dab.
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