Fans have expressed concern over a potential $80 price tag for Borderlands 4, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford says “real fans” would buy it regardless.
Earlier in the year, the gaming market committed to its first $80 launch title with the Nintendo Switch 2’s Mario Kart World. As more companies get on board with the potential pricing hike (like Microsoft and Xbox), fans have expressed concern that Gearbox’s next title in the Borderlands franchise, Borderlands 4, will follow suit and also increase the game’s base price to $80. The latest Borderlands 4 trailer can be seen below.
Aside from Microsoft and Mario Kart World, so far other companies like 2K have not committed to the price increase outwardly. Notoriously outspoken Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, has responded to one fan today in regards to the potential price increase. A fan on X (formerly Twitter) responded to Randy Pitchford’s post promoting the announcement that Borderlands 4 is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 with “Randy, this game better not be 80 dollars. Don’t take that risk, alot of gamers aren’t gonna pay 80 dollars and feed this notion of constant increase of the price tag You are the CEO, you have some say with the price when it comes to your publisher.”
Pitchford replied to that fan directly saying that it’s not his call on the potential price increase, and continued with “If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.” Fans who responded underneath that statement were not happy, and fans feel the CEO has a “lack of awareness.”
Last week during a PAX East panel, Pitchford claimed Borderlands 4 is “by far the biggest universe that we’ve built,” on top of a statement that refuses to rule out the price hike. According to IGN, Pitchford said during that same panel “There’s other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there’s tariffs for the retail packaging. It’s getting gnarly out there, you guys. Borderlands 4 has more than twice the development budget for Borderlands 3. More than twice. So the truth is, I don’t know what the price is going to be.”
Borderlands 4 is out on September 12, 2025.
