In an era where more games are charging $80, how much will Gearbox parent Take-Two be asking for Borderlands 4 ahead of the delayed launch of GTA 6? Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says he doesn't know the Borderlands 4 price himself, but he's not ruling out "the new price that Nintendo and Microsoft have led with," nodding to recent price hikes across Xbox and the $80 tag on the Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World.
Asked about Borderlands 4's price at a PAX East panel, Pitchford says: "I'll tell you the truth. I don't know. That is the truth. I'll hit it straight on. It's an interesting time.
"On one level, 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," he continues. "There are some folks who don't want to see prices go up, even the ones deciding what the prices are.
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"There's other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there's tariffs for the retail packaging. It's getting gnarly out there, you guys. Borderlands 4 has more than twice the development budget for Borderlands 3. More than twice. So the truth is, I don't know what the price is going to be."
Pitchford says Borderlands 4 pre-orders will open "soon," and the price will of course be set by then.
He reasons that, naturally, the devs want to sell copies to get the budget to make more games. "When the revenue comes in, we can spend it to make bigger games and better games," Pitchford says.
"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."
He reiterates that "we're gonna have a price set soon." This "might be the new price that Nintendo and Microsoft have led with," he added, not saying $80 out loud but leaving no room for doubt, or "it might be that we stay back."
"It's gonna be the people at the publishing house that decide that. If it is cheaper, maybe we'll sell you that minimap that you guys want that we'll develop later," he joked, referring to some of the hesitant player feedback to Borderlands 4 going all-in on a compass instead of using a minimap (I'm actually not against the idea given the focus on verticality). "How bad you want that? $10? I don't know. I'm just kidding."
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