Randy Pitchford "astonished" at lack of Borderlands rip-off

Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford has claimed he remains "astonished" that no one has yet launched a Borderlands clone.

Borderlands was designed to be different to more mainstream shooters like Call of Duty, Pitchford told Gamasutra. But while this enabled it to stand out from other straight-faced fare, it also highlighted the game as a fresh concept ripe for stealing.

"I'm actually astonished that we're about to launch a sequel and no one's stole it from us," Pitchford said. "The formula's right there. No one's stolen it yet. That's weird.

"We're in an industry where people do nothing but steal from each other. That's kind of interesting, isn't it? Not that I want anyone to steal it, or I'm challenging people to steal it."

The original Borderlands deployed its graphical style in an attempt to distinguish itself from other rivals, and Pitchford remains cautious about trying to ape existing success stories such as Call of Duty.

"To do that, you really have to put in a lot. You have to really go for it and spend a lot. You have to basically not only out-brute force the market leader, but you have to out-clever them. The game has to be better. The marketing and production effort -- everything has to be bigger and better, and then you might kind of match or come close.

"It's kinda like Jerry Garcia. He said something like, 'You don't merely want to be the best at what you do. You want to be the only ones that do what you do.' If you're the only ones that do something that people find as valuable? You don't have to worry about competition. Like, Borderlands has zero competition. It doesn't have to worry about that at all."