Randy Pitchford moves to justify comments that ‘real fans’ would ‘find a way’ to buy Borderlands 4 at $80
The Gearbox Entertainment CEO has drawn criticism for his recent suggestion
Gearbox Entertainment CEO Randy Pitchford has attempted to explain recent comments that “true fans” would “find a way” to buy Borderlands 4 if it ends up costing $80.
Earlier this month, Pitchford was asked by a follower on X not to make the game $80, to which he replied that it was “not my call”.
He then added, “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.”
Pitchford’s comments went relatively unnoticed at the time but have become more widespread this week, with some players criticising the suggestion that players who can’t afford the game aren’t “true fans”.
In a new post on X, Pitchford has linked to a video from a recent Borderlands 4 Q&A, saying: “If you want the truth, here it is”. In the Q&A, Pitchford was asked how much Borderlands 4 will cost, and claimed: “I don’t know, and that is the truth”.
He then explained that while it’s important to make sure games are priced properly, the increased costs of game development and manufacturing are creating an issue where price increases have to be considered.
“And it’s an interesting time, right?” he said. “On one level, we’ve got a competitive marketplace where people want to – or the people that make those choices want to – sell as many units as possible, and they want to be careful about people that are price sensitive. So there’s some folks that don’t want to see prices go up, even the ones deciding what the prices are.
“There’s other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there’s tariffs for the retail packaging, and it’s getting gnarly out there, you guys. Borderlands 4 has more than twice the development budget than Borderlands 3. More than twice.
“So the truth is, I don’t know what the price is going to be. I do know that we will be opening pre-orders soon, and that will be when the price is set.”
If you want the truth, here it is: pic.twitter.com/3bqdA5gIU2
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 21, 2025
Pitchford went on to say that Gearbox‘s aim is to make sure the game feels like value for money, regardless of the price, meaning that if it does end up costing $80 it’s important for the player to feel like it was money well spent.
“I think that Borderlands 4 – here’s the philosophy we have – whatever the price is, we’re entertainers,” he said. “Yes, we want to get more resources so we can make bigger and better games. There’s a reason why Borderlands 4 is so awesome. It’s because you guys showed up and supported Borderlands 3, and we had the budget, so we could more than double the budget, feel confident in that. And that’s awesome.
“When the revenue comes in, we could spend it to make bigger games and better games. As artists, we want everybody to have it. We want to make it as easy as possible for everybody to enjoy what we’re creating.
“So it’s a weird thing, but the fundamental philosophy is we want people to buy it so we have the resources to make more, but we want everyone who buys and plays a Gearbox game to feel certain that they got the better end of the bargain. Whatever the price is, that they got the best value. And that’s the philosophy that we live by.
“And so we’re going to have a price set soon, and it might be the new price that like Nintendo and Microsoft have led with. It might be that we stay back. It’s going to be the people at the publishing house that decide that.”
He then joked: “And if it is cheaper, then maybe we’ll sell you that mini-map that you guys want, but we’ll develop later. How bad do you want that? Ten bucks? I don’t know. I’m just kidding. Or am I?”
Last month, Gearbox announced it had shifted Borderlands 4’s release date forward, from its original September 23 date to September 12.
It later confirmed that Borderlands 4 will be releasing on Nintendo Switch 2 later this year, on top of the previously announced PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC versions.
