Gearbox CEO Clumsily Defends $80 Games

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Gearbox CEO Clumsily Defends $80 Games

Borderlands 4 is set to release on September 12 for the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. You would think the months leading up to it would be full of hype and excitement, but nothing is that easy in the gaming industry lately. Instead, the game might become the latest controversy, thanks to Gearbox CEO ****** Pitchford’s comments about its potential price tag.

The industry-wide push toward $80 video games didn’t get much traction, but that was until Nintendo and its Switch 2 reveal. Now, it feels like every other developer and publisher is scrambling to make us pay the hefty price. But since when have these games justified the price? We’re all for supporting developers, but can we at least get a complete, bug-free game?

Borderlands 4 might cost $80, and Gearbox’s CEO thinks “real fans” should just afford it

Pitchford initially responded to a fan on

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/X who asked him not to price Borderlands 4 at $80. The fan urged him not to “take that risk,” saying that many gamers simply won’t pay such a premium. Pitchford had a neutral reply, “Not my call.” It’s a reply we can all understand. Because, after all, pricing decisions fall to Take-Two Interactive, Gearbox’s parent company.

A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for ***** 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.

— ****** Pitchford (@DuvalMagic)

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Unfortunately, he didn’t stop there. Pitchford added, “If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” referencing his own experience in 1991 when he spent $80 on Starflight for the ***** Genesis. The problem? His words ignore the far more complex economic pressures people face in 2025.

In 1991, a teenager could reasonably save for a game while living at home and paying no bills. Today’s gamers are contending with record inflation, rising rents, increased education and healthcare costs, and stagnant wages. Suggesting that they simply “find a way” just feels like you’re saying it without considering the people who buy your game.

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Pitchford’s implication that struggling to afford Borderlands 4 makes someone less of a “real fan” is also pretty tone-deaf. It ignores our ongoing issues with content quality relative to pricing. Even just this year, we’ve gotten games released at a standard AAA game’s price but full of bugs and quality issues.

$80 games need to have the equivalent amount of content and quality

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4 has been a long-awaited game. | Image Credit: Gearbox Software

We have no official confirmation yet that Borderlands 4 will be priced at $80. But all signs suggest it’s a likely outcome. Historically, standard game prices held steady for years: $50 in the early 2000s, then $60 during the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, and most recently $70 as of the last three to four years. But the industry now appears to be creeping toward a new norm of $80 for AAA games.

For many of us, the promise of a better-looking game, or even a ******* game, doesn’t justify the escalating cost. Even this year, games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Split Fiction have shown us that games don’t need to cost that much to look good and play well. The idea that a ******* price equals better value has proven to be, at best, inconsistent.

It feels like the only exception to this ideology that fans will even consider is Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6). But that’s another discussion entirely. If $80 becomes the new standard, developers and publishers will have to do more than raise prices. We need to see that the extra cost delivers extra value, and they’ll have to learn to communicate that value better.

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#Gearbox #CEO #Clumsily #Defends #Games

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