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Randy Pitchford clears up Borderlands 4 $80 pricing controversy in 500+ word post

Pitchford's essay hopes to add some clarity after fans have heavily critiqued him for his stance on $80 pricing.
Alex Hopley Editor UK 29 May 2025

With rising budget costs and development time, it does seem like video games are going to adopt $80 as the new norm for pricing. A few weeks ago, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said that Borderlands 4 might cost $80.

Then, he proceeded to step in even more doodoo as he also said that "real fans" would find a way to pay that amount. Now, in a lengthy (and we mean lengthy) post on Twitter/X, Pitchford has attempted to clear up his thoughts on the matter.

We won't copy the post entirely, and you can check it out in full below, but essentially he apologises that his words got mixed up. But, regarding the "real fans" statement, Pitchford said that he didn't mean to appear like he was taking the audience for granted. "The sincere truth is that I'm grateful that anyone likes our games and humbled that so many fans show up to enjoy and support what we do," he wrote. "As an artist I don't want prices to go up because I want everyone to have access to what we create."

Pitchford then goes onto say that the people creating Borderlands 4 and other games are real people. "I'm not claiming I'm perfect. But I don't deserve any less latitude than anyone else. I choose to think of others with the most amount of charity and am often surprised to discover some that jump to the worst possible way to consider a thing as doing that is just counter to my nature," Pitchford said, ending his statement.

https://x.com/DuvalMagic/status/1927802548326650365

Editor UK Alex Hopley covered the video game industry for Gamereactor, from new announcements and launches to the business behind them. He also wrote on tech, film and entertainment, and his coverage wasn't tied to any one region.
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