"We tend to commit to the bit": Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talks Borderlands 4, the evolution of looter-shooters, and $80 game discourse

To say that Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is passionate about Borderlands 4 – and the looter shooter series as a whole – would be an enormous understatement. Pitchford is constantly singing the upcoming game's praises on social media with near-overwhelming enthusiasm, and sitting down with him at Gamescom 2025, it's immediately apparent that this isn't just an online persona.

Chatting beneath an enormous Borderlands 4 poster – though Pitchford's loud, patterned shirt is somehow still the brightest thing in the room – it's apparent he's bursting with pride. As we begin discussing the looter shooter genre and how it's evolved in the years since the first Borderlands popularized it ("Some say it created it," he chimes in), it's easy to see why. In his words, the series "went from an industry that predicted that we would die" to pioneering "a whole new genre."

Pioneering a genre

Borderlands started life as the love child of a first-person shooter and an RPG, combining "moment-to-moment fun" with the satisfaction of "leveling up, getting more powerful, and collecting loot." The fact that it offers a combination of these factors is "why it's called Borderlands," Pitchford explains. "Borderlands are places between things that don't belong. A borderland is between two things that have no business being together. So Borderlands is the borderland between a role-playing game and a shooter. It's the borderland between comedy and drama. It's the borderland between surrealism and realism."

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Though the benefit of hindsight validates Borderlands, at its inception, Pitchford had no idea that it would birth an entire genre. "We didn't realize at the time that, because of the success of Borderlands, there would be a lot of other folks that wanted to jump in and do things," says Pitchford. "And it's kind of exciting, because in a few cases, some of the game makers that I admire most started making shooter looters too, and it's really cool because it proved that it wasn't just a one-off. Borderlands ushered in a whole new genre."

Pitchford doesn't always think other devs' attempts to put their own spin on Borderlands' formula work brilliantly. "When people twist it too far and they go off the deep end, it doesn't work," he suggests. Still, he's positive about the arrival of other looter shooters in the space. "I don't see any entertainment as competition, I think especially video games," adds Pitchford. "And if someone makes a brilliant looter shooter, that's really good for all of us.

"When people make bad video games, it's bad for all of us. But good video games? Oh, it's so great," he gushes. "When someone has an awesome experience playing a looter shooter, they definitely want more. And we're gonna find a lot of people are going to be curious where it all started, and will want to explore Borderlands at some point. As Borderlands has been more successful, it's paved the way for other shooter looters, and as other great shooter looters have appeared, I think some of those customers find Borderlands. That's awesome, and I love it. And also, I'm a gamer. I want to play all these games! So, more please. Let's make more games."

Speaking about Borderlands' own approach to the looter shooter space, Pitchford says that "there are core things that we understand to why the shooter looter feels so good, and we tend to commit to the bit. If you look at the Borderlands games over time, you see that we are pushing – and always exploring – the boundaries, but we're doing it within a framework that is very natural to what Borderlands is."

This, he thinks, is the key to Borderlands' success. "We went from an industry that predicted that we would die, that Borderlands would find no audience, to being one of the leading video game franchises in the world. It's kind of humbling, frankly, to be a part of it, but I don't really worry about that too much."

Social media, discourse, and the great pricing debate

As Pitchford raves about the upcoming installment, I'm reminded of the constant enthusiasm he and other Gearbox devs show on Twitter, singing the praises of their games and interacting with fans – for better or for worse. Pitchford often courts controversy on social media, with backlash over Borderlands 4 pricing concerns a recent example (but more on that later).

"There's risks to it, but whatever, you know, we're just doing our thing," he acknowledges. "The truth is that we're kind of just nerds that are obsessed with our own work, and it's just kind of a miracle that other people seem to be interested in what we're doing."

Asked about those risks, and if he's ever worried about the extra scrutiny being active on social media might bring, Pitchford is relatively unconcerned. "I don't live in a lot of fear like that, because at the end of the day, that honestly doesn't really matter," he says. Even when he sees people sharing "very strong opinions" on his posts, he argues that can be interpreted as "a different kind of love, because the truth is, we don't post on forums for things we don't care about, right?"

More than that, he also likes to keep in mind how relatively small the number of people who interact with his posts is. "Honestly, it's infinitesimal relative to the actual big picture," he argues. "Because, OK, two million people saw a post, [but] like, you know how many people play Borderlands?"

Even if the proportion of Borderlands players flooding Pitchford's Twitter replies is relatively small compared to the number of players the series has, that's not to say that backlash doesn't happen. Before Borderlands 4 was confirmed to be $70, there was major uproar after one fan raised concerns about the upcoming looter potentially being $80, to which Pitchford responded that while the price wasn't his decision, "if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen" regardless.

"[Take] the sum of every conversation that ever happened on social media about the price of a video game, and every article that was ever written, you add that all up, and it won't change anything with the result," says Pitchford. "At the end of the day, when I want something and I feel like what they're asking is fair, I'll get it. And if I don't want something, I won't."

Speaking about Borderlands specifically, he acknowledges that "I don't know how I could say this and sound as if I have any amount of humility," but believes that Borderlands 4's value is justified. "Like, you look at all the past Borderlands games, we have people that spend 1,000s of hours in the Borderlands. If you think about that in terms of the most amount that could have ever been spent, versus the time of entertainment that was [had], you can't find a better value in the world for any kind of entertainment. [...] As an artist. I want everybody to play it. And as someone who's gonna make themselves accessible on the internet, yeah, I'll have the conversation."

Pitchford saw Borderlands 4's now infamous price discussion as a fan being "really concerned that if Borderlands 4 is $80, it's going to fail," noting that "I was trying to say it's gonna be fine, man, this conversation doesn't matter. The value will be decided by every customer making their decision."

"Shit, I think [Gearbox] could charge $200," he says. "I wish they'd give it away, because then everybody would play it. But that's not how the business works." Even so, he reiterates, "the value's there."

"I knew it was going to be fine," he continues. "I tried to calm the guy down and then, you know, of course, 'ah, I'm taking people for granted.' It's like, I can't believe anybody likes our stuff, let alone the fact that Borderlands has achieved the success that it has, like we're just goofing around, making stuff we're passionate about."

He goes back to that initial prediction of Borderlands' failure, recalling that when he presented the first game at Gamescom, "nobody cared," and "the entire industry predicted it was going to fail." Pitchford continues: "I still remember, like, 'OK, the world is saying this doesn't even deserve to exist, and it's probably going to die, but I love it, and we're committed, and we're going to give this thing everything we've got, and even if we the only people [who] end up playing with it, you know what? We did it. It turned out it works."

After six years of development, Pitchford is looking forward to Borderlands 4's launch. The CEO is "so excited" to join fans and "play with strangers cooperatively, which I always love doing.

"I do it on launch day, and I'll do it for weeks – I just jump into people's games and just see what they're doing, and look at their characters, and look at their loot, and see where they are in the game, and kind of watch their play styles and sometimes help them out. I have God abilities, so sometimes I'll give free loot away, but I love that. I can't wait to play with people."

Want to see more of GamesRadar+'s Autumn Preview? Head over to our Gamescom 2025 coverage hub.