After having created the controversy with his response to a surfer, Randy Pitchford, boss of Gearbox Software, is now trying to calm the game by specifying his point of view on the question of the Borderlands 4 price.
For a few months now, the issue of prices in the video game industry has become a deeply sensitive subject. Between PS5 for At astronomical prices, consoles today sold more expensive than their launch, games reaching the symbolic bar of € 90 and untimely increasesthe players do not fail to express their dissatisfaction. Randy Pitchford, boss of Gearbox Software, recently paid the price, and he is trying today to explain himself after having aroused a vintage controversy with Borderlands 4.
The Gearbox boss returns to the controversy of the Borderlands 4 price
For those of the background that would not have followed, the New opus price de Borderlands is today a great stranger. On the occasion of the Pax East organized in early May, Pitchford had indeed declared that he had not yet been defined, and that it was therefore not impossible that he too aligns himself on the € 90 of Mario Kart World. Alpagued by a fan on X, he then answered the following thing: “If you are a real fan, you will find a way to buy it”. A answer that obviously did not please the players, who therefore quickly went up to the niche.
In response to this lifting of shields from the public, Pitchford therefore decided to republish an extract from the Borderlands 4 conference of the Pax East, during which he had just addressed the subject of price increases in industry. To accompany the video, he then wrote these simple words: “If you want the truth, here it is”. And what is it according to him?
“We live in an interesting period. On the one hand, we have a competitive market where people who make these choices want to sell the greatest number of units possible and want to pay attention to people who are sensitive to prices. Some people do not want to see prices increase, even among those who decide prices. Others accept reality, namely that budgets devoted to games increase and that there are prices for retail sales. Things are spoiling friends. Borderlands 4 cost more than twice as expensive to produce than Borderlands 3. More than twice! »».
Randy Pitchford, during the PAX East 2025
A justification that does not convince everyone
Not sure that it is enough to calm the anger of the players, but it at least allows to have a clearer vision concerning the position of Pitchford with Borderlands 4. Even if, as some Internet users do not fail to remind him, the underside of the industry do not justify everything in the eyes of the public. “The thing you need to understand is that most people don’t care about what the budget of your game is” For example, proclaims a certain panicrolling. “It is only your fault if you have decided to spend ‘more than twice’ what Borderlands 3 cost to do it”.
And the least we can say is that it is far from being the only one to think so. Some game creators, like Nicolas Doucet and Joseph Fares for example, did not fail to recall that industry also needs smaller projects. And the success ofAstro Botwhich won the prize for the “game of the year” at the Game Awards 2024, then Split Fictionreleased at the start of the year, show that the public is also fond of this type of experience. It is up to publishers and developers to make the choice when the time comes, therefore.
Source : Randy Pitchorf
