This is how you spin, courtesy of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

I like Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. He's an enthusiastic guy who's really into the products his studio puts out. And his enthusiasm doesn't seem fake in the way company figureheads feign interest to push product. Randy's a gamer who wants to make good games.

After being tipped off to the similarities between Gearbox's latest game Borderlands and a short film called CodeHunters, Kotaku contacted the game developer and received an exemplary response.

Randy Pitchford said: "I would like to thank news sites who chose to share the awesome work in Code Hunters with their readers. It's great content and one can no doubt imagine that a number of artists and designers at Gearbox were inspired and influenced by it. It was inspiring to me when "The Incredibles" was clearly a big source of influence for titles like Battlefield Heroes and Team Fortress 2 (and other amazing games and media). Perhaps with more attention from gaming news sites and other sources, Code Hunters can be more respected and honored for their innovation and leadership in CG as well. Maybe I'm too optimistic to believe that Code Hunters can get as much attention as Pixar (with due respect I believe they deserve), but with the help of gaming news sites and others who care about great content, maybe more people can notice and recognize and, perhaps, be inspired by it."

And that's how you spin, kiddies. This response might've been at the ready, but it's a solid response regardless. It addresses the similarities, praises the original (CodeHunters), and namedrops pieces of media we all love. "If you toss hate towards Borderlands you're also tossing it at Team Fortress 2," it's basically communicating with puppy dog eyes. 

Who knows how gamers might've responded without the intelligent response from Randy, but I'm guessing the PR people at Gearbox anticipated the worst. And to that I tip my hat. They know their fucking demographic.