According to TechSpot, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford recently claimed in the Shacknews documentary “24 ‘Til Launch: The Making of Borderlands 4” that the video game industry still hasn’t had its “Citizen Kane” moment, nor has it produced works comparable to Jurassic Park or Star Wars. Despite gaming budgets now matching or exceeding Hollywood blockbusters, Pitchford stated “I love that we’re just getting started” and “We’re just figuring this shit out.” The comments have generated significant debate, with many pointing to titles like Half-Life 2, The Witcher 3, and Grand Theft Auto V—the most profitable entertainment product of all time—as counterexamples. This perspective reveals deeper questions about how we measure artistic achievement in interactive media.
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The Fundamental Flaw in Comparing Mediums
The “Citizen Kane” comparison fundamentally misunderstands gaming as an artistic medium. Film is a passive, linear experience where the director controls every frame and the audience’s journey is predetermined. Gaming is inherently interactive, branching, and player-driven—the “art” exists in the relationship between designer intention and player agency. While Citizen Kane revolutionized cinematography and narrative structure in film, gaming’s equivalent breakthroughs have been technological (3D graphics, online multiplayer), structural (open worlds, procedural generation), and experiential (emergent gameplay, player choice). To judge gaming by film’s standards is like judging sculpture by painting’s criteria—they’re fundamentally different forms of expression.
What Gaming’s Masterpieces Actually Look Like
Gaming has already produced its masterpieces, but they don’t resemble film landmarks because they couldn’t. Titles like Shadow of the Colossus achieve profundity through minimalist storytelling and environmental scale that only works in an interactive space. Portal revolutionizes how players think about physics and space through mechanics rather than dialogue. The Last of Us achieves emotional depth through player investment in survival mechanics. These aren’t gaming’s versions of films—they’re entirely new artistic achievements that couldn’t exist in any other medium. The very attempt to find a “Citizen Kane” equivalent suggests gaming needs validation from another art form rather than being judged on its own terms.
The Commercial Reality Behind Artistic Claims
Pitchford’s comments come from a CEO whose recent track record includes defending Borderlands 4’s performance issues by calling it “a premium game made for premium gamers” and suggesting critics should “code your own engine.” This context matters—when industry leaders face commercial pressures, they often resort to grand pronouncements about the medium’s potential rather than addressing current shortcomings. The reality is that gaming’s business model, dominated by live service games and sequel-driven development, often works against the conditions that create true artistic breakthroughs. Independent and mid-tier developers frequently produce more innovative work precisely because they operate outside the blockbuster pressure cooker.
Where Gaming’s True Breakthroughs Will Come
If gaming has a “Citizen Kane” moment ahead, it won’t be a single title but rather a fundamental shift in how we conceptualize interactive storytelling. The real frontier lies in artificial intelligence enabling truly responsive narratives, virtual reality creating embodied experiences, or cloud gaming democratizing access to computational power. The next masterpiece might not even be recognizable as a “game” by current standards—it could be an evolving digital world, an educational simulation that transforms learning, or a therapeutic experience that helps process trauma. Gaming’s greatest achievements will emerge when we stop comparing them to other media and embrace what makes them unique: their capacity to make us active participants in crafted experiences.
