The head of Borderlands 4 has become unpopular with his fans with a single post. Instead of support for the expensive pricing of Borderlands 4, the CEO is now facing a backlash.
What did the CEO say? The CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, reacted on X.com to a promotional video between Gearbox, the developers of Borderlands 4, and Nintendo. There, he expressed his excitement for the shooter as the head of the development studio.
A fan asked the CEO in response to his post that the developers should not release Borderlands 4 for $80, as that would be too expensive and fans wouldn’t pay for it. However, instead of support, the fan received a condescending reply from the CEO:
A) Not my decision. B) If you are a real fan, you will find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I had just graduated high school and was working minimum wage at an ice cream shop in Pismo Beach, and I found a way to get it.
Randy Pitchford via X.com
However, instead of the hoped-for support for his studio’s pricing policy, the CEO faced a backlash that still provokes new responses over a week later.
Borderlands 4 is set to be released on September 12, 2025, and here you can watch the trailer:
Big Price for Big Controversy
How are fans reacting to the tweet? Fans of the Borderlands series are furious. In over 250 replies, they throw insults and criticism at the CEO of Gearbox for his statement. As X user @young_dontai writes: “You didn’t just say that in 2025.”
He continues in a second post on X.com: “I’m not too young to understand that the economy is literally at its worst since the 1930s-1940s, which makes it incredibly dumb to compare the price of a console in 1991 with that of a game in 2025, when the overall economy was much better back then.”
In the USA, inflation and therefore the cost of living continue to rise since the Corona pandemic (via Tagesschau.de). The rising prices for video games, as we now also know from CoD, are caught up in the conflict over price increases in general.
User @SynthPotato explains on X.com why the price will not stay at $80 anyway: “We are NOT paying $80 for a Borderlands game, knowing that you will make several season passes that will cost an additional $100, and that you will probably also sell weapon skins.”
Borderlands 3 from 2020 offers not only the base game for €59.99 on Steam but also a Super Deluxe Edition for €79.99. There is also a collection with all titles, DLCs, and expansions for €146.74 instead of €637.54, which you would have to pay for all DLCs, expansions, boosters, and other game content individually.
This includes Season Pass 1, which normally costs €49.99, as well as Season Pass 2, which normally costs €29.99. Randy Pitchford published his post on May 14 and has not commented further on the price of the new Borderlands since.
Whether Borderlands 4 will actually cost $80 at release or the same price in euros as usual in Germany is still unclear. The developers at Gearbox still have the opportunity to set the price. However, prices in dollars and euros usually align. The backlash against the CEO, however, is not only about the price but also about the way the answer was formulated. After all, fans can look forward to an improvement in Borderlands 4: Borderlands 4 promises that they will get the loot much better than in part 3: This is their plan
