Gearbox Software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gearbox Software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Gearbox Software
Type Private
Founded Plano, Texas, USA (1999)
Founder(s) Randy Pitchford
Brian Martel
Stephen Bahl
Landon Montgomery
Rob Heironimus
Headquarters Plano, Texas, USA
Industry Software & Programming
Employees 200+[1]
Website www.gearboxsoftware.com

Gearbox Software, LLC is an American video game development company based in Plano, Texas.

Contents

[edit] History

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

Gearbox started with developing expansions to the game Half-Life. Porting Half-Life to console platforms (each with new game content) followed, building the company's experience in console game-making, in addition to enhancing and building upon the successful Counter-Strike branch of the Half-Life franchise. Prior to Half-Life 2, Gearbox had developed or helped develop every Half-Life expansion game or port, including Opposing Force, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike, Condition Zero, Half-Life for the Sony PlayStation 2 (Half-Life Decay), and Half-Life for the Sega Dreamcast. Branching out to other publishers, Gearbox pursued additional port work, each game being released with additional content, but this time from console to PC. These projects included Gearbox's first non-FPS, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved, forging new publisher relationships with Activision and Microsoft Game Studios respectively. Additional new development, in the form of a PC game in the James Bond franchise (Nightfire) for Electronic Arts, also occurred during the company's initial 5-year period.

2007 brought announcements of new projects based on licensed film IPs, including the crime drama Heat[2] and the science-fiction classic Alien.[3] In the September 2007 issue of Game Informer, a new game franchise was revealed, the sci-fi shooter/vehicle combat game Borderlands[4], after which Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford mentioned in an online interview that development on the Heat game had not yet begun, as the planned development partner for the project had gone under.[5] This was followed by an announcement by Sega that Gearbox would be helming a new version of rhythm game Samba de Amigo for the Wii, a departure from their signature FPS titles.[6]

In 2008, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford announced that the company was working on yet another major unannounced title, hinting that is was "huge". This title is rumored to be Halo 4, which is expected to be a launch title for next Microsoft console. [7]

[edit] Game Series

[edit] Half-Life Series

Main article: Half-Life (series)

Gearbox has developed a total of six games in the Half-Life series: Half-Life: Opposing Force and Half-Life: Blue Shift (expansion packs); ports of Half-Life for Dreamcast (which included Half-Life: Blue Shift) and Half-Life for PlayStation 2 (which included Half-Life: Decay); they also did a large amount of work on both the retail release of Counter-Strike and the main portion of Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

[edit] Brothers in Arms Series

Main articles: Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway

During their fourth year (2003), Gearbox began secretly working on their first internally-driven and independently-owned game: Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30. Developed for both PC and Microsoft's Xbox console, and built with the Unreal 2 engine, this game was released in March 2005. The sequel, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, followed seven months later. The series was published by Ubisoft, who supported both games with PlayStation 2 versions, and later worked with Gearbox to develop Brothers in Arms games for portable systems (mobile phones, PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS) and the Wii home console.

In 2005, Gearbox licensed the Unreal 3 engine from Epic Games,[8] to replace the Unreal 2 engine technology used in previous games,[8] and grew its internal development teams to handle the demands of next-generation technology and content. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway was the first new title to be announced,[9] continuing the company's flagship franchise.

[edit] Technology

Gearbox has developed using a number of existing game engines for various projects, including GoldSrc, RenderWare, Bungie's Halo, Unreal 2 and Unreal 3. They have completed games on a variety of game platforms, including Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Wii and Microsoft Windows.

In 2006, Gearbox partnered with Dell and Intel to provide development computer systems and technology.[10]

In June 2007, Gearbox purchased a Moven motion capture system,[11] becoming one of the few independent developers with an in-house motion capture studio.

In February 2008, it was announced that Gearbox had licensed NaturalMotion's Morpheme software[12].

[edit] Games developed

Game Compilations featuring Gearbox Software games:

[edit] Games currently in development

As of September 2008, the following games are in development at (or under guidance by) Gearbox Software:

[edit] References

  1. ^ "How Gearbox Works: Interview with Randy Pitchford". Retrieved on 2008-10-14.
  2. ^ "Gearbox turning up Heat on next-gen consoles". Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
  3. ^ a b "SEGA and Twentieth Century Fox Licensing & Merchandising to bring Alien franchise to next-gen systems". Retrieved on 2006-12-17.
  4. ^ "2K Games To Publish Gearbox's Borderlands". Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
  5. ^ a b "What Happened To Gearbox Software's Heat?". Retrieved on 2007-08-17.
  6. ^ a b "Samba De Amigo Announcement". Retrieved on 2007-09-15.
  7. ^ a b "Gearbox Hints At Something Huge". Retrieved on 2008-04-08.
  8. ^ a b Gearbox Software, LLC. (2005-09-23). Gearbox Software licenses Unreal Engine 3. Press release. http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/index.php?p=pr&pr=9. Retrieved on 2007-11-07. 
  9. ^ Gearbox Software, LLC. (2006-04-12). Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway Announced. Press release. http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/index.php?p=pr&pr=17. Retrieved on 2007-11-07. 
  10. ^ "Dell Case Study: Gearbox Software: Go Further". Dell, Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
  11. ^ Xsens Technologies B.V. (2007-06-28). Big Leap Forward for Animation Production at Gearbox. Press release. http://www.moven.com/en/home_moven/news.php?BasicNieuwsItemID=1. Retrieved on 2007-10-27. 
  12. ^ "Gearbox Licenses NaturalMotion's Morpheme". Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
  13. ^ "Gearbox developing Halo 4". Retrieved on 2008-08-26.

[edit] External links


ONZ: Izrael najpierw ewakuował Palestyńczyków, a potem ich ostrzelał
Przynajmniej 30 Palestyńczyków zginęło w Strefie Gazy w ostrzale domu, do którego zostali wcześniej ewakuowani przez izraelskich żołnierzy - wynika z raportu ONZ.
"Nie myślałem, że minister się tak prostytuuje"
Posłanka PiS Grażyna Gęsicka, wzywając rząd do odpowiedzialności za niewykorzystanie funduszy unijnych manipuluje opinią publiczną - ocenił w TVN24 poseł PO Janusz Palikot.
Wypadek na drodze Wrocław-Legnica
Jedna osoba została ranna w wyniku wypadku, do którego doszło w piątek wieczorem niedaleko miejscowości Mazurowice (Dolnośląskie). Droga krajowa nr 94 Wrocław - Legnica została całkowicie zablokowana.
Omar Faris: Niech Izrael opuści nasze ziemie
- Niech Izrael opuści nasze ziemie, a gwarantujemy, że ani jedna rakieta nie spadnie na ich ziemie - mówił przewodniczący Palestyńskiej Koalicji na rzecz Prawa do Powrotu Omar Faris, gość CZATerii w INTERIA.PL.
Juszczenko: Konflikt gazowy był zaplanowany
Ukraina pozwoli rosyjskim obserwatorom na wjazd na jej terytorium w celu nadzorowania tranzytu rosyjskiego gazu do Europy - poinformował prezydent Ukrainy Wiktor Juszczenko po spotkaniu z czeskim premierem Mirkiem Topolankiem w Kijowie.
niezarejestrowana strona brak hosta 906 wymiana linkow 906