37-year-old Caleb McAlpine reports that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer about 2 months ago. The doctors give him 7 to 12 months to live, and if chemotherapy works, up to 2 years. But that might not be enough for the die-hard fan of Borderlands 4.
What is the problem? Besides the hard-to-bear stroke of fate, the player is worried about one thing. Borderlands 4 is set to be released in 2025. In the worst-case scenario, that may not be enough time for the shooter fan to experience the fourth installment.
That’s why he turns to the Reddit forum. He asks the Borderlands 3 community if there is any way to get in touch with Gearbox. This way, he might be able to access the game a bit earlier and experience it before his death.
The developer studio is currently working on Borderlands 4 and thus offers the best opportunity to play the shooter early. In fact, someone from the Borderlands community has seen the request and managed to establish contact with Gearbox.
Borderlands 4 has only been announced with a teaser so far:
Cancer-stricken fan might still experience Borderlands 4
What response did he receive? The streamer k6plays made the connection to Gearbox. Now the CEO of the developer studio, Randy Pitchford, is personally taking care of the matter. He wrote on X that they are now communicating via email. The developer is willing to do everything possible to make something happen:
What exactly is happening remains open. It could be that the Borderlands fan will get to test the game before anyone else. Alternatively, the developer studio might keep him updated and ensure that the game is released in time before Caleb McAlpine potentially passes away.
It wouldn’t be the first time that Gearbox has taken care of a terminally ill fan. The studio fulfilled a fan’s last wish for Borderlands 3 and provided the player with an early version. In Borderlands 2, there is an obituary featuring Claptrap’s voice as well as an NPC for a fan who also died of cancer.
What do we already know about Borderlands 4? In a first trailer for Borderlands 4, there were several hints about the story. The video likely featured the moon Elpis of Pandora, which played a significant role in the finale of Borderlands 3.
Fans suspected that Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2 could return. But Pitchford denied this and revealed that something much worse awaits the vault hunters instead. Players now believe that the trailer featured not Handsome Jack but The Watcher.
Gearbox has released several installments of the Borderlands series. MeinMMO author Max Handwerk has taken the time to rank all the titles in a power ranking. We are curious to see how Borderlands 4 will perform after its release: 6 games of Borderlands in the ranking
