Borderlands 4 boss Randy Pitchford responds to "real fans" backlash by doubling down on the fact he doesn't set the price: "If you want the truth, here it is"

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Stop me if you've heard this one before

An old man with a staff in Borderlands 4
(Image credit: Sony/Gearbox)

Following his controversial comments about a potential Borderlands 4 $80 price tag, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has offered "the truth" behind his statement.

Last week, Pitchford said that "real fans" would be prepared to pay whatever it cost to play Borderlands 4, but that he wasn't in control of its eventual price - which may or may not be $80. Those comments have been hit with significant backlash, with many accusing Pitchford of being out of touch given the current economic climate.

Pitchford went on to acknowledge that "we've got a competitive marketplace where 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." That sensitivity extends, apparently, to "even the ones deciding what the prices are," some of whom "don't want to see prices go up."

He also points out that "there are other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there are tariffs for the retail packaging, and it's getting gnarly out there." While the budget for Borderlands 4 is more than twice that of Borderlands 3, I would suggest that gnarliness does extend to the economic situation for…basically everyone else, but Pitchford does tap into a relevant point - game development costs are growing faster than players' desire to pay for those games, and that's an existential issue for the industry at large. Perhaps, however, there's a better way to express that by saying 'just make it work'.

It's been a rough week for Borderlands, which is also facing a review-bombing campaign over its new license agreement.

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Ali Jones
Ali Jones
Managing Editor, News

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.

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