I’m surprised Gearbox Software and Take-Two Interactive don’t add another 0 to Randy Pitchford’s annual salary to stop him from opening his mouth on social media. Because once again, the studio founder has opened his mouth and said something controversial that lands both himself and the team he is responsible for in hot water. This time, it’s a ridiculous claim that if you’re a “true fan” of Borderlands 4, you will happily pay $80 for the loot shooter.
With just a few months to go until launch, Pitchford should be bigging up everything that the game does incredibly well and getting audiences excited for all the right reasons, but has instead chosen to weigh in on a debate he is too privileged to have a proper say in. Games are getting more expensive than ever, with rumours swirling that GTA 6 will sell for $100 as console prices are raised years after launch to combat rising costs. Consumers sadly have no choice but to bear the brunt of these consequences, and now Pitchford is trying to frame it as a matter of brand loyalty. No, thank you…
Borderlands 4 Costing $80 Would Be A Very Unwelcome Surprise
Pitchford’s awkward comment came about in response to a fan asking whether Borderlands 4 will end up retailing for $80. This is what he had to say: “A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.”
If I squint my eyes, I can kinda see where Pitchford is coming from here. If you’re so excited about a game and truly love it with all your heart, you will do everything in your power to play it, even if it means paying a higher price. You could use the same logic for expensive collectors’ editions or a specific piece of merchandise, but the logic being applied here to the base version of a triple-A title in 2025 doesn’t hold water. Worse, it comes across as immature and insulting.
It’s true that video game prices have remained within a similar ballpark for decades now, and only in recent years have we seen them increase from $60 to $70 and beyond. In years past, especially on older platforms like Sega Genesis and SNES, you could find a handful of more expensive exceptions, like Starflight – which Pitchford mentions – but this also fails to take into account inflation, stagnating wages, cost of living, and how many more costs come into play in the modern era when it comes to buying and playing video games. Borderlands 4 costing $80, isn’t at all comparable, whether you’re a “true fan” or not.
It’s a shame because, in the past, Gearbox Software has felt like a compelling outlier when it comes to traditional pricing, offering downloadable content that falls outside the realm of live services. It was trying to be approachable and old-school, and its pricing played a part in that. Pitchford’s comments here make those past successes feel like transparent deception.
Pitchford has since followed up on these ill-timed comments at a Borderlands 4 Q&A, and his response makes a lot of sense. He touches on developers, publishers, and consumers all feeling the squeeze right now thanks to rising costs, unexpected tariffs, and the climate video games currently find themselves in. He goes on to say that Borderlands 4’s budget was twice as much as its predecessor, which will inevitably be a factor in its retail price.
Like previous titles, Borderlands 4 is also going to support plenty of DLC after launch, so suddenly having to deal with a potentially higher launch price isn’t easy to accept.
But regardless of backpedaling on these comments to offer up reasoning, Pitchford still had the gall to suggest that “true fans” will find a way to enjoy Borderlands 4, even if they are struggling in these times of economic hardship. It feels like emotional manipulation trying to pass itself off as marketing, and, unfortunately for Pitchford, his fans are smart enough to see through it.
I consider myself a massive fan of countless things, but even if I love them with all my heart, I still need to take a step back and consider whether I can actually afford to enjoy them. Better yet, I’m lucky enough to work in an industry where those costs aren’t as suffocating. But for a normal person who is excited about Borderlands 4 and might now need to find $20 extra to buy it, that pill is much harder to swallow.