Randy Pitchford is no stranger to controversy, and this evening he generated a little more with an inappropriate sales pitch. Pitchford took to Twitter to cash in on the tragic murder of George Floyd by advertising Duke Nukem 3D Anniversary World Tour. Though the tweets have been deleted, we managed to pull them from Google Cache and archive them for posterity’s sake.
“If you want to kill some pig cops this weekend, here’s the Duke Nukem 3D 20th Anniversary World Tour (Steam link),” Pitchford stated (Archive.is/Archive.org). He went on to say in another tweet, “Too provocative? That’s the challenge with artists… Sometimes they push boundaries — even video game developers in 1996.” (Archive.vn/Archive.org)
Pitchford quickly deleted the tweet thread after posting a final thought (Archive.vn/Archive.org): “We’re all looking at this world and struggling to come to grips with it. My intent is not to hurt anyone, but I noticed this and it’s interesting that the theme was there over 20 years ago in this video game and feels relevant today. Was feeling cute may delete later.”
Of course, Pitchford was likely making a joke in poor taste as opposed to a genuine effort to sell more copies of Duke Nukem 3D. At least I hope it was because the game isn’t even discounted on Steam, which would make this sales pitch even more diabolical.
Pitchford will almost assuredly weather this latest storm. Just last month, he was under fire for the controversy surrounding the payouts of Borderlands 3 royalties to Gearbox employees. Of course, Randy is best known for the Aliens: Colonial Marines scandal, which has followed him seemingly without consequence for over a decade.
Randy had the good sense to delete the tweets before they caused a significant reaction. Comments on the thread at the time of deletion seem to be divided, with some finding the comments humorous and others thinking the tweets were in poor taste.
