Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick says Borderlands 4 is priced at a relatively modest $70 instead because the company just really cares about giving gamers a good value.
During the Q&A portion at the end of today's Take-Two earnings call, Zelnick was handed the softest of softballs when an investor asked why the company decided to price Borderlands 4 at $70 instead of participating in the recent trend in some AAA developers toward $80 games.
"I think our approach may be a little bit different," Zelnick said, gripping that softball tightly and running through all four bases. "We believe that any consumer experience is the intersection of the thing itself and what you paid for the thing. So our goal is to vastly exceed expectations.
"We want to put out the best entertainment on Earth, and we want to deliver more value than what we charge for. And we think we've, generally speaking, gotten that right."
In an interview published in tandem with today's earnings call, Strauss dodged a question on whether GTA 6 will wind up costing $80, saying, "We've had variable pricing at the company forever."
He returned to that same phrase during the Q&A with regards to Borderlands 4's price tag.
"Variable pricing has been the nature of this industry forever. Most frontline releases will go out at a higher price, sometimes with special editions, and then over time, usually the price is discounted to optimize for the largest possible market. And I don't think that's going to change any time soon."
A casual observer might look at Borderlands 4's $70 price tag, and the fact that it was announced shortly after Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford lit the internet on fire by saying "real" fans would fork up the money no matter the price tag, and say, well, thanks, Randy. But Larian Studios' publishing director Michael Douse recently said it's "extremely unlikely" Pitchford's comments had anything to do with Borderlands 4's pricing.
$80 games have retreated for now, but analyst says the old $60 or $70 pricing model is dead in the "Wild West" of 2025: "I know a lot of people don't like it, but people still buy these games at these high price points"
