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A dispute between original Claptap voice actor David Eddings and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has turned ugly overnight, as Eddings has accused Pitchford of physical assault in response to Pitchford called Eddings 'bitter and disgrunted' over the decision not to use his voice for the character in Borderlands 3.
The argument originally arose after a Twitter user noticed that Eddings, who had voiced Claptrap in all previous Borderlands games, was not returning for Borderlands 3. Eddings originally stated that the reason was because he wanted to be paid for his voice work rather than do it 'for free' on top of his regular job – David was a former Vice President of Business Development at Gearbox during the previous games right up until he left the company in 2017 to join Rooster Teeth's game publishing division.
No. For the first time, I insisted on getting paid for my performance and all of a sudden they couldn't afford me. Now I'm not telling them how to run their business but maybe next time they should put the $12M payment from 2K in the Gearbox bank account instead. Just sayin'…
— David Eddings (@davideddings) May 2, 2019
However, in response Pitchford claimed that Eddings was offered 2x the scale of their standard pay for voice work, saying that Eddings side of events were because he was 'bitter and disgruntled' about being turned down from the project.
There was no “force” – He wanted it (and reveled in it). The issue today is that Mr. Eddings is bitter and disgruntled about having been terminated. He was offered 2x scale, he refused. I don’t want him to do it unless he wants to do it, as motivation affects performance.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 4, 2019
The story really took a turn last night, when Eddings responded in a Twitter thread revealing that he was originally asked late last year to reprise the role and was willing to do it for free (aside from past royalties), as long as Pitchford publicly apologised for an altercation that Eddings claimed happened during GDC 2017 when he was alledgedly physically assaulted by Pitchford in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis hotel.
I ultimately offered to do it for “free” in exchange for past royalties owed plus an apology for something I’ve never spoken about publicly until now: Randy physically assaulted me in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis at GDC 2017.
— David Eddings (@davideddings) May 7, 2019
Eddings also made references to the current ongoing lawsuit between Pitchford and former Gearbox lawyer Wade Callender over the latter accusing Pitchford of taking a secret $12 million bonus saying that '2K says they won't give a statement regarding an ongoing lawsuit but if the allegation is false then it sure seems a lot easier to just deny it since that's the only reason they're mentioned.'
At the time of writing, neither Pitchford nor 2K have made a statement towards Eddings' accusations. It's also not the first controversy over Borderlands 3's voice actor selections either, with Troy Baker also claiming that he wasn't asked back to perform the role of Rhys while Pitchford himself denied these claims.
It looks like this story might still have some developments to go yet. Admist all of this, Borderlands 3 is due out on PC, Xbox One and PS4 on September 13.
