Gearbox CEO Thought Borderlands Was Going to be a "Disaster"

"I still couldn't quite believe it when the success kept rolling in."

Even though Borderlands 2 is 2K's most successful game of all time, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says he was "terrified" that the game was going to be a "disaster."

Speaking in the latest issue of EDGE, Pitchford admitted that he "was afraid Borderlands was going to be a disaster, frankly. All the Borderlands games have obviously been important for Gearbox, and they've been personally important to me."

"But Borderlands was the second original series that we created, and it was a struggle. I was terrified the whole way. And I still couldn't quite believe it when the success kept rolling in - the tail was quite astounding on that game."

Borderlands was first revealed in 2007, and eventually got released in late 2009, selling over 2 million copies within its first two months on sale.

It was followed by two sequels, including 2012's Borderlands 2 and 2014's Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, plus an episodic series from Telltale, Tales From The Borderlands.

"When we were originally trying to pitch Borderlands, it kind of felt how it feels now when we're trying to talk about Battleborn," Pitchford added, "which is like, 'Dude, we think we're on to something!' But we can scream as loud as we want, and people are still skeptical: 'We'll believe it when we see it.' Nobody really wanted to give us any attention for Borderlands, and it wasn't until we launched the game and people got to play it for themselves and talk about it with their friends that it took off into such a big thing."