Fans slam Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford's message to "cost sensitive" fans "We are out here struggling, Randy." Image credit: Eurogamer/Gearbox News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on June 1, 2025 Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has double-doubled down on comments about the cost of Borderlands 4, by inviting "cost sensitive" fans to download Tiny Tina's Wonderlands from the Epic Games Store for "FREE". These latest comments come after Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford made headlines when he told a X/Twitter commenter that "real fans" would find a way to get their hands on a copy of the game, even if it came with a $80 price tag. He later tried to justify it, all the while saying pricing was "not [his] call". In this latest social media post, Pitchford wrote the word "free" four times, each time in blockcaps. 9 Exciting 2025 Open-World Games We Can't Wait to Play.Watch on YouTube "For our real fans who may be cost sensitive, the very awesome and incredibly fun smash hit videogame Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is FREE this week on the Epic Games Store," Pitchford wrote. "Please enjoy this FREE gift by grabbing your FREE copy here, FREE." Aforementioned real fans were quick to respond to this comment, too. "You don't get to just walk back being incredibly tone-deaf to the world around you. We are out here struggling, Randy," said one player, while another wrote: "Dude you need to shut up already. No reason games should be $80 especially if its anything like 3 or that shit ass excuse of a movie." "I'm afraid the industry is moving in that direction and it’s just reality that we'll have to accept," Pitchford insisted. "The price for Borderlands 4 is going to get announced by the publisher soon. My wish, having worked my ass off on the game, is for as many people as possible to get to play it." When another commented: "So Randy, you think making backhanded comments towards your consumers about them being 'cost sensitive' is the plan? Wtf happened to you," he responded: "Backhanded? There are literally people who want to play great video games, have a game-ready PC, but may not be able to spend enough to buy a new AAA game for awhile and this week there’s a free offer for one of the best shooter looters to come out over the last five years…" "Saying 'cost sensitive' as the CEO of a company (In lieu of criticism of an $80 price tag for BL4) when a lot of your fan base is struggling to even pay for the roof over their heads and food on their tables is a crazy sentence to utter," said another player. Just a week before the "real fans" kerfuffle, Pitchford implored we "play the game first and understand the choices [the development team has] made" before passing judgement on changes Gearbox has made to the shooter's head's up display, including the removal of the mini-map. Borderlands 4, as we learned a couple of weeks ago, is now arriving earlier than expected on 12th September, and developer Gearbox recently shared more of its latest looter shooter in a new PlayStation showcase. It showed off a couple of new Vault Hunters, some of its new weapons, new traversal mechanics, its new planet, and more all to whip-up enthusiasm for what creative director Graeme Timmins called "hands-down our best Borderlands ever".

Start SlideshowStart SlideshowImage: Nintendo / Kotaku / Jake Randall / Burndumb, Nintendo / Kotaku, Fox / Disney / Kotaku, Sandfall Interactive, Nintendo / Kotaku, Arrowhead Game Studios / Kotaku, Screenshot: Подкаст «Пóпы и культура» / YouTube / Switch 2, a2dubai / YouTube / KotakuFrom mergers to memes, the landscape of interactive entertainment is always in motion. Here’s your cheat sheet for the week’s most important stories in gaming.Previous SlideNext SlideList slidesTarget Leaves Dozens Of Switch 2 Consoles Locked In A Cage On The Store FloorNintendo’s next big console, the Switch 2, is set to arrive on store shelves in just 10 days. So it’s not surprising to see photos showing dozens of Switch 2 consoles sitting in store warehouses and back areas. However, I wasn’t expecting a bunch of Switch 2 consoles to be sitting in a metal cage in the middle of a Target already. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSwitch 2 Leaker Explains How He Got The Console Early And Why He's Not Afraid Of NintendoImage: Nintendo / KotakuIt was the middle of the night when Fedor Volkov found himself anxiously waiting on the streets of Moscow for a ride back home. In his arms he held a Switch 2 box and nestled within was the console fans had been waiting years to get their hands on, but which still didn’t officially go on sale for more than a week. He was too nervous and excited to remember to bring something to hide it in. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSomeone Take Away Randy Pitchford's PhoneImage: Fox / Disney / KotakuSometimes you just gotta walk away. And this might be one of those times. Earlier this month, Gearbox co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford replied to someone on social media about the studio’s next game, Borderlands 4, possibly receiving an $80 price tag. He said it wasn’t his call and then infamously added, “If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” This didn’t go over well with people online. A few days later, on May 22, he said he didn’t intend to sound like an asshole. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSwitch 2 Startup And Menu Settings Appear Online As Early Player Shows Off Console In 'Code Red' Leak For NintendoScreenshot: Подкаст «Пóпы и культура» / YouTube / Switch 2The Switch 2 is just days away from its official June 5 launch, but already footage is beginning to spread online of people going hands-on with Nintendo’s next console. One fan based in Russia recently uploaded a nearly 10-minute video that includes the Switch 2's startup sequence and a tour through its menu settings. “Respects to this man for sacrificing his life to unbox the console a week before launch,” reads the top comment on YouTube. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesClair Obscur: Expedition 33 Publisher Says Fans Would Never Guess The Hit RPG's Budget: 'I'm Sure Mirror's Edge And Vanquish Cost More'Image: Sandfall InteractiveClair Obscur: Expedition 33 is one of the top-rated games of the year and has sold over 3.3 million copies. And it did it all with a very small budget, according to publisher Kelpler Interactive. How small? Portfolio director Matthew Handrahan isn’t saying, but he thinks everyone’s guesses are probably wrong. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesOnly One First-Party Nintendo Game Won't Work On Switch 2Image: Nintendo / KotakuThe Nintendo Switch 2 will be able to play most original Switch games without any issues when it launches on June 5. According to an update from Nintendo, most big games and all first-party titles (with one tiny exception) will work on Switch 2, though you might need an update or an old Joy-Con. - Zack Zwiezen Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesHelldivers 2 Players Are Pulling Off Incredible Feats In A Last-Ditch Effort To Save Super EarthImage: Arrowhead Game Studios / KotakuHelldivers 2's Galactic War has come to Super Earth and it’s going very, very badly. Players have lost every major city on the planet save for two, but are making a triumphant last stand against the Illuminate as fans from across the real world band together to hold the line. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesSomeone's Unboxing A Switch 2 But Claims It Needs A Day-One Patch To WorkScreenshot: a2dubai / YouTube / KotakuSwitch 2 hardware appears to be officially out in the wild, but it doesn’t sound like anyone will be able to play the console early. A day-one patch is needed for it to fully work, according to someone who uploaded a brief unboxing video of the new Nintendo console to YouTube. - Ethan Gach Read MorePrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores CloseGameStop Doubles Down On Crypto With Massive Bitcoin Purchase As Stores Close Share SubtitlesOffEnglishThe company continues its pivot away from selling games and toward doing anything else to stay afloatPrevious SlideNext SlideList slidesPlayStation’s Days of Play Brings Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, NBA 2K25 & More To PS PlusPlayStation’s Days of Play Brings Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, NBA 2K25 & More To PS Plus Share SubtitlesOffEnglishBomb Rush Cyberfunk is hitting PS Plus alongside NBA 2K25 and a Destiny 2 takeover in June

Marathon – just one of the problems highlighted this week (Bungie) A reader is disturbed by the amount of bad news in the video game world at the moment, especially as most of it involves issues that have been brewing for many months. We are in a strange situation right now with video games, where almost all the news is terrible and yet great games continue to be released. This has the side effect of masking the serious issues from many gamers, who either don’t know or don’t care about what’s really going on. As long as games as good as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Monster Hunter Wilds are still coming out then everything must be fine, right? Wrong. What disturbed me this week, while reading the Metro, is that apart from job cuts (although they were implied) it had examples of all the biggest problems going on. What I found extra worrying is not only did they happen all at the same time but they’re all long running issues that show absolutely no sign of being fixed. Perhaps the most obvious problem was the growing inevitability of £80 becoming the default price for big name games. At this point it’d be a victory if it only increases to £80, because GTA 6 will almost certainly be more. What was so awful about this week’s news is that we had two big industry figures telling us that actually we shouldn’t complain, we should get a second job to afford the games and just eat the cost. I wouldn’t necessarily expect better from someone like Randy Pitchford, but hearing the ex-Sony guy saying that we shouldn’t complain just shows how out of touch these execs and decision makers are. Increasing costs will lower the number of games people buy and that means a lot of titles and companies are just going to have the door slammed in their faces. People’s money is not going to stretch as far as it used to and that is going to be a big problem for some games. Many are already predicting Marathon will either be a flop or just cancelled before it gets a chance, and it’s not hard to see why. Nothing about it looks appealing and Sony seeming to be looking for any excuse to shut down Bungie completely, at the loss of hundreds of jobs. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Oh, and the reason for Bungie’s downfall? Corporate greed, according to the people that used to work there. That’s not exactly shocking news but there it is in black and white: all these problems could’ve been avoided if Bungie’s bosses had thought of the company first and not themselves. But then we also had the revelation that the boss of Take-Two doesn’t play video games and has no interest in trying out GTA 6, even though he totally could. This is also a massive non-surprise and probably very common in the games industry, where decisions are made on a spreadsheet and not from a place of passion or ambition. Sometimes they just seem to lack basic competence though, such as the lack of any plan for when games become too expensive and time consuming to make – a problem they must have seen coming years ago. This was illustrated perfectly this week by Hideo Kojima saying his Metal Gear spiritual sequel won’t be out for five or six years, even though he announced it over a year ago. The amount of time it takes to make a game is out of control, but nobody is doing anything about it. And then to finish we had the rumour that Sony is only going to have a State of Play this summer, not a full showcase, or possibly have nothing at all in terms of not-E3 events. Thereby setting us up for another 12 months of no major announcements and only one or two releases. More Trending I don’t want to get anyone down, but I do think it’s important to point out that just because good games are still coming out it doesn’t mean that it’s not chaos behind the scenes, which ultimately is only going to lead to even greater disaster if none of the problems are dealt with. By reader Ollie Hideo Kojima will be approaching his 60s by the time Physint comes out (Lorne Thomson/Redferns) (Credits: Redferns) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Video games' soaring prices have a cost beyond your wallet - the concept of ownership itself As the industry's big squeeze reaches consumers, a grim bargain emerges. Image credit: Adobe Stock, Microsoft Opinion by Chris Tapsell Deputy Editor Published on May 22, 2025 Earlier this month, Microsoft bumped up the prices of its entire range of Xbox consoles, first-party video games, and most (or in the US, all) of its accessories. It comes a few weeks after Nintendo revealed a £396 Switch 2, with £75 copies of its own first-party fare in Mario Kart World, and a few months after Sony launched the exorbitant £700 PS5 Pro (stand and disc drive not included), a £40 price rise for its all-digital console in the UK, the second of this generation, and news that it's considering even more price rises in the months to come. The suspicion - or depending on where you live, perhaps hope - had been that when Donald Trump's ludicrously flip-flopping, self-defeating tariffs came into play, that the US would bear the brunt of it. The reality is that we're still waiting on the full effects. But it's also clear, already, that this is far from just an American problem. The platform-holders are already spreading the costs, presumably to avoid an outright doubling of prices in one of their largest markets. PS5s in Japan now cost £170 more than they did at launch. That price rise, mind, took place long before the tariffs, as did the £700 PS5 Pro (stand and disc drive not included!), and the creeping costs of subscriptions such as Game Pass and PS Plus. Nor is it immediately clear how that justifies charging $80 for, say, a copy of Borderlands 4, a price which hasn't been confirmed but which has still been justified by the ever graceful Randy Pitchford, a man who seems to stride across the world with one foot perpetually bared and ready to be put, squelching, square in it, and who says true fans will still "find a way" to buy his game. The truth is inflation has been at it here for a while, and that inflation is a funny beast, one which often comes with an awkward mix of genuine unavoidability - tariffs, wars, pandemics - and concealed opportunism. Games are their own case amongst the many, their prices instead impacted more by the cost of labour, which soars not because developers are paid particularly well (I can hear their scoffs from here) but because of the continued, lagging impact of their executives' total miscalculation, in assuming triple-A budgets and timescales could continue growing exponentially. And by said opportunism - peep how long it took for Microsoft and the like to announce those bumped prices after Nintendo came in with Mario Kart at £75. Anyway, the causes are, in a sense, kind of moot. The result of all this squeezing from near enough all angles of gaming's corporate world is less a pincer manoeuvre on the consumer than a suffocating, immaculately executed full-court press, a full team hurtling with ruthless speed towards the poor unwitting sucker at home on the sofa. Identifying whether gaming costs a fortune now for reasons we can or can't sympathise with does little to change the fact that gaming costs a fortune. And, to be clear, it really does cost a fortune. Things are getting very expensive in the world of video games. £700 for a PS5 Pro! | Image credit: Eurogamer Whenever complaints about video game prices come up there is naturally a bit of pushback - games have always been expensive! What about the 90s! - usually via attempts to draw conclusions from economic data. Normally I'd be all on board with this - numbers can't lie! - but in this case it's a little different. Numbers can't lie, but they can, sometimes, be manipulated to prove almost anything you want - or just as often, simply misunderstood to the same ends. (Take most back-of-a-cigarette-packet attempts at doing the maths here, and the infinite considerations to bear in mind: Have you adjusted for inflation? How about for cost of living, as if the rising price of everything else may somehow make expensive games more palatable? Or share of disposable average household salary? For exchange rates? Purchasing power parity? Did you use the mean or the median for average income? What about cost-per-frame of performance? How much value do you place on moving from 1080p to 1440p? Does anyone sit close enough to their TV to tell enough of a difference with 4K?! Ahhhhh!) Instead, it's worth remembering that economics isn't just a numerical science. It is also a behavioural one - a psychological one. The impact of pricing is as much in the mind as it is on the spreadsheet, hence these very real notions of "consumer confidence" and pricing that continues to end in ".99". And so sometimes with pricing I find it helps to borrow another phrase from sport, alongside that full-court press, in the "eye test". Sports scouts use all kinds of numerical data to analyse prospective players these days, but the best ones still marry that with a bit of old-school viewing in the flesh. If a player looks good on paper and passes the eye test, they're probably the real deal. Likewise, if the impact of buying an $80 video game at full price looks unclear in the data, but to your human eye feels about as whince-inducing as biting into a raw onion like it's an apple, and then rubbing said raw onion all over said eye, it's probably extremely bloody expensive and you should stop trying to be clever. Video games, to me, do feel bloody expensive. If I weren't in the incredibly fortunate position of being able to source or expense most of them for work I am genuinely unsure if I'd be continuing with them as a hobby - at least beyond shifting my patterns, as so many players have over the years, away from premium console and PC games to the forever-tempting, free-to-play time-vampires like Fortnite or League of Legends. Which leads, finally, to the real point here: that there is another cost to rising game and console prices, beyond the one hitting you square in the wallet. How much is GTA 6 going to cost? $80 or more? | Image credit: Rockstar The other cost - perhaps the real cost, when things settle - is the notion of ownership itself. Plenty of physical media collectors, aficionados and diehards will tell you this has been locked in the sights of this industry for a long time, of course. They will point to gaming's sister entertainment industries of music, film and television, and the paradigm shift to streaming in each, as a sign of the inevitability of it all. And they will undoubtedly have a point. But this step change in the cost of gaming will only be an accelerant. Understanding that only takes a quick glance at the strategy of, say, Xbox in recent years. While Nintendo is still largely adhering to the buy-it-outright tradition and Sony is busy shooting off its toes with live service-shaped bullets, Microsoft has, like it or not, positioned itself rather deftly. After jacking up the cost of its flatlining hardware and platform-agnostic games, Xbox, its execs would surely argue, is also now rather counterintuitively the home of value gaming - if only because Microsoft itself is the one hoiking up the cost of your main alternative. Because supplanting the waning old faithfuls in this kind of scenario - trade-ins, short-term rentals - is, you guessed it, Game Pass. You could even argue the consoles are factored in here too. Microsoft, with its "this is an Xbox" campaign and long-stated ambition to reach players in the billions, has made it plain that it doesn't care where you play its games, as long as you're playing them. When all physical consoles are jumping up in price, thanks to that rising tide effect of inflation, the platform that lets you spend £15 a month to stream Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Oblivion Remastered and the latest Doom straight to your TV without even buying one is, at least in theory (and not forgetting the BDS call for a boycott of them) looking like quite an attractive proposition. Xbox, for its part, has been chipping away at this idea for a while - we at Eurogamer had opinions about team green's disregard for game ownership as far back as the reveal of the Xbox One, in the ancient times of 2013. Then it was a different method, the once-horrifying face of digital rights management, or DRM, along with regulated digital game sharing and online-only requirements. Here in 2025, with that disdain now platform-agnostic, and where games are being disappeared from people's libraries, platforms like Steam are, by law, forced to remind you that you're not actually buying your games at all, where older games are increasingly only playable via subscriptions to Nintendo, Sony, and now Xbox, and bosses are making wild claims about AI's ability to "preserve" old games by making terrible facsimiles of them, that seems slightly quaint. More directly, Xbox has been talking about this very openly since at least 2021. As Ben Decker, then head of gaming services marketing at Xbox, said to me at the time: "Our goal for Xbox Game Pass really ladders up to our goal at Xbox, to reach the more than 3 billion gamers worldwide… we are building a future with this in mind." Four years on, that future might be now. Jacking up the cost of games and consoles alone won't do anything to grow gaming's userbase, that being the touted panacea still by the industry's top brass. Quite the opposite, obviously (although the Switch 2 looks set to still be massive, and the PS5, with all its price rises, still tracks in line with the price-cut PS4). But funneling more and more core players away from owning games, and towards a newly incentivised world where they merely pay a comparatively low monthly fee to access them, might just. How much a difference that will truly make, and the consequences of it, remain up for debate of course. We've seen the impact of streaming on the other entertainment industries in turn, none for the better, but games are a medium of their own. Perhaps there's still a little room for optimism. Against the tide there are still organisations like Does It Play? and the Game History Foundation, or platforms such as itch.io and GOG (nothing without its flaws, of course), that exist precisely because of the growing resistance to that current. Just this week, Lost in Cult launched a new wave of luxurious, always-playable physical editions of acclaimed games, another small act of defiance - though perhaps another sign things are going the way of film and music, where purists splurge on vinyl and Criterion Collection BluRays but the vast majority remain on Netflix and Spotify. And as uncomfortable as it may be to hear for those - including this author! - who wish for this medium to be preserved and cared for like any other great artform, there will be some who argue that a model where more games can be enjoyed by more people, for a lower cost, is worth it. Game Pass often offers great value, but the library is always in a state of flux. Collectors may need to start looking at high-end physical editions. | Image credit: Microsoft There's also another point to bear in mind here. Nightmarish as it may be for preservation and consumer rights, against the backdrop of endless layoffs and instability many developers tout the stability of a predefined Game Pass or PS Plus deal over taking a punt in the increasingly crowded, choppy seas of the open market. Bethesda this week has just boasted Doom: The Dark Ages' achievement of becoming the most widely-played (note: not fastest selling) Doom game ever. That despite it reaching only a fraction of peak Steam concurrents in the same period as its predecessor, Doom: Eternal - a sign, barring some surprise shift away from PC gaming to consoles, that people really are beginning to choose playing games on Game Pass over buying them outright. The likes of Remedy and Rebellion tout PS Plus and Game Pass as stabilisers, or even accelerants, for their games launching straight onto the services. And independent studios and publishers of varying sizes pre-empted that when we spoke to them for a piece about this exact this point, more than four years ago - in a sense, we're still waiting for a conclusive answer to a question we first began investigating back in 2021: Is Xbox Game Pass just too good to be true? We've talked, at this point, at great length about how this year would be make-or-break for the triple-A model in particular. About how the likes of Xbox, or Warner Bros., or the many others have lost sight of their purpose - and in the process, their path to sustainability - in the quest for exponential growth. How £700 Pro edition consoles are an argument against Pro editions altogether. And about how, it's becoming clear, the old industry we once knew is no more, with its new form still yet to take shape. There's an argument now, however, that a grim new normal for preservation and ownership may, just as grimly, be exactly what the industry needs to save itself. It would be in line with what we've seen from the wider world of technology and media - and really, the wider world itself. A shift from owning to renting. That old chestnut of all the capital slowly rising, curdling at the top. The public as mere tenants in a house of culture owned by someone, somewhere else. It needn't have to be this way, of course. If this all sounds like a particularly unfavourable trade-in, remember this too: it's one that could almost certainly have been avoided.

News Monster Hunter Wilds x Street Fighter 6 Collaboration Goes Live on May 28th It adds an Akuma armor set, a Blanka-Chan Palico set, new quests, gestures and even a recreation of the Drive Impact system. Posted By Ravi Sinha | On 22nd, May. 2025 Capcom has finally revealed its first collaboration for Monster Hunter Wilds: Street Fighter 6. The star of the show is Akuma, for whom players can unlock an armor set and layered equipment for. Check out the reveal trailer below – it kicks off on May 28th. The armor isn’t just cosmetic. You can use Akuma’s moves, including the Gou Hadoken and Gou Shoryuken, with the full set. The equipped weapon determines the damage, and if you equip the armor set instead of the layered version, combos and other attacks can inflict Stun. Even the Drive Impact system is somewhat recreated. Two new quests, “Demonic Strength” and “True Strength,” are available and dole out rewards. You can also access “Ultimate Strength” at Hunter Rank 21. The Palico also gets a Blanka-Chan set and layered equipment, and you can customize your Hunter Profile with a new background, nameplate and pose. Paid DLC will go live the same day, adding a Chun-Li outfit for the Handler and a Cammy outfit. If that wasn’t enough, a new 8-star Tempered Monster is also being added. Stay tuned for more details, especially with Title Update 2 due this Summer. Tagged With: Elden Ring: Nightreign Publisher:Bandai Namco Developer:FromSoftware Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, PCView More Borderlands 4 Publisher:2K Developer:Gearbox Entertainment Platforms:PS5, Xbox Series X, PCView More Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Publisher:Sony Developer:Kojima Productions Platforms:PS5View More Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out! Monster Hunter Wilds x Street Fighter 6 Collaboration Goes Live on May 28th It adds an Akuma armor set, a Blanka-Chan Palico set, new quests, gestures and even a recreation of the Drive ... Borderlands 4 – Randy Pitchford Apologises for Remarks About “Real Fans” Pitchford's apology came about in response to a fan pointing out that his statements about "real fans" sounded... MindsEye PC Requirements Revealed Build a Rocket Boy has revealed pretty steep system requirements for the PC version of its upcoming debut open... Wild Hearts S Showcases 4-Player Multiplayer Gameplay The action RPG's upcoming re-release, which is due out for the Nintendo Switch 2 in July, will add seamless fo... Atomfall Was “Immediately Profitable” at Launch, Sequel Plans Being Discussed Meanwhile, work is also continuing on post-launch updates and DLC for the first-person action survival game it... Mario Kart World’s Courses “Easily Exceed” 100, Over 200 Songs Included, Says Nintendo "If you were to add up all the possible variations, it would easily exceed 100," says producer Kosuke Yabuki a... View More

Image: 2KGearbox Software's Randy Pitchford found himself in hot water recently after making a fairly tone deaf comment regarding the potential price of Borderlands 4. In response to concerns that the game may well be priced at $80, Pitchford simply stated that "if you're a real fan, you'll find a way". It's not a totally egregious comment in some respects, but the insinuation that those who perhaps can't afford the game aren't so-called "real fans" definitely rubbed folks the wrong way. Now, as spotted by Eurogamer, Pitchford has attempted to defend and justify his comment with another post on social media; this time consisting of a video in which he answers a question regarding how much Borderlands 4 will ultimately cost. He states that Borderlands 4 has "more than twice" the budget of Borderlands 3, which may well contribute to the final price of the game. Though he says that "as artists, we want everybody to have it", there are factors which have to be considered, including "tariffs for the retail packaging" and more. Pitchford says that pre-orders will be opening "soon", and that the price will be set at that time. He's keen to stress, however, that he doesn't know whether publisher 2K will follow the lead of Nintendo and Microsoft and price it at $80, or whether it will remain on the cheaper side. His comments here seem fair, and it just goes to show how some rogue social media post can have such a detrimental effect on one's reputation. Hopefully he'll think twice next time and perhaps show a bit more tact. "We don't feel like we're fighting the system" Do you think Randy Pitchford has adequately justified his comments here? Let us know. [source x.com, via eurogamer.net] Related Games See Also Share:0 0 Nintendo Life’s resident horror fanatic, when he’s not knee-deep in Resident Evil and Silent Hill lore, Ollie likes to dive into a good horror book while nursing a lovely cup of tea. He also enjoys long walks and listens to everything from TOOL to Chuck Berry. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment... Related Articles 27 Upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 Games We're Excited For In 2025 The very best Switch 2 games coming soon The First Review For Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Is In A fantasy score? Nintendo Switch 2 Final Tech Specs Have Been Confirmed GameChat has a "significant impact on system resources" Nintendo Apologises For "Error" With Mention Of Switch 2 VRR TV Support "The incorrect information was initially published" 12 Switch Games Are Getting Free Switch 2 Upgrades, Here's What You Can Expect Nintendo's free updates arrive next month

If there's someone I wouldn't want to be right now, it's most certainly the head of Gearbox's PR department.Imagine: you and your team are working tirelessly to build hype for Borderlands 4 while the franchise is getting bombarded with negative reviews over spyware-like EULA changes and the disaster that was the Borderlands movie still being fresh in everyone's memory, only to have your own boss, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford, completely undermine all your efforts with just a couple of tweets.And worst of all, there is nothing you can really do about it, as even after getting slammed for all but confirming Borderlands 4 would be priced at $80 and trying to defend it with a personal anecdote and the claim that it's "not his call," Pitchford didn't lay low and wait for the outrage to die down, choosing instead to double down on his bizarre antics and ride the wave of backlash, only for it to backfire tremendously.GearboxThat's all to say the drama surrounding Gearbox's infamous CEO shows no signs of slowing down, with Randy Pitchford catching not one, but two waves of criticism this time.The first wave came after he tried to "play it cool" in response to a joke tweet from Devolver Digital, which pointed out that you could buy Mycopunk – an upcoming co-op shooter with a whimsical art style not too dissimilar from Borderlands' – for yourself and three friends for the price of a single copy of Borderlands 4.For some inexplicable reason, Pitchford replied with, "Mycopunk is cheaper than a point of meth" and "probably has fewer side effects," which many commenters perceived as cringeworthy, urging him to log off Twitter and stop making life harder for Gearbox's regular developers—who, as history has shown, will be the ones hit hardest should Borederlands 4 flop.The second wave of backlash stems from Randy trying once again to justify inflated price tags by sharing a recent video from PAX East, where he attempts to explain "the truth" about video game pricing. In the video, which had mostly gone unnoticed until now, the CEO reveals that Borderlands 4 has "more than twice" the development budget of Borderlands 3, which, based on Jason Schreier's 2020 report, would put the figure somewhere around $280-300 million.While Randy probably saw this as a winning argument in his head, the gaming community didn't agree. Many pointed out that games simply don't need to have such massive budgets in the first place, and that it's AAA studios choosing to ignore cost-efficiency – so why should players be the ones to foot the bill?Recent releases have made it clear, gamers note, that a title's quality and success aren't tied to how much money is thrown at it, and with Pitchford's claims contradicting this observable reality, it's no surprise the video he shared was met with heavy criticism.So, what do you think about Borderlands 4? Will the game's sales be affected by Randy's antics? Tell us what you think down in the comments!Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Beyond classification (Nintendo) The Wednesday letters page debates whether Borderlands 4 is worth £80 or not, as one reader looks forward to Nintendo Switch 2 OLED Model. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk Multi-generational I have a question about the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not very serious and I don’t think it’s possible to have a definitive answer, but is the Switch 2 the start of the tenth generation of consoles or is it still part of the ninth generation?I was curious to see if Wikipedia had a stance on it, and it seems pretty unambiguous in counting it as ninth generation. I find this unsatisfying, as it’s clear that the Switch 2 is a big change for Nintendo, in terms of pricing and things like online accounts. Also, the tenth generation sounds like it’s going to start in a couple of years and I’m not sure it’s fair to pretend the Switch 2 isn’t part of it. For me it’s not a question of power but of who you’re competing with, and I’d already bet the Switch 2 is going to easily outsell the PlayStation 6 and next gen Xbox.Penfold GC: We’d say the huge gap between the release of the original and the Switch 2 means they cannot be considered the same generation. So, the real question is what generation is the Switch 1? Our initial reaction is to say eighth, but we’d also agree with the idea that the Switch broke the concept of generations and is simultaneously eighth and ninth and neither. So, if you wanted to consider Switch the start of the tenth we wouldn’t argue against it, but for us it fits better as ninth. A rich man’s world I’d say I was shocked by the arrogance of Randy Pitchford’s comments, about $80 games, but It’s Randy Pitchford so I’m not. I’m not sure I’d even argue a game like Borderlands 4 isn’t worth it: a co-op focused multiplayer game that’s got lots of replayability.It’s not like Doom: The Dark Ages where I imagine you’re only going to play it once but something that can potentially last for years (admittedly probably via DLC and other expensive extras). So in theory I can see the argument, but do all these millionaire owners and businessmen have to be so smug about it? Although it may not be a lot of money to them it is to the rest of us. If the price rises mean I have to be much more select about what I spend my money on then I think Borderlands 4 just went down the priority list a few notches.St1nger Take your pick It’s not a very Nintendo thing to do, because they sure do like to encourage double and triple-dipping, but I would’ve been happy if they’d releases the Switch 2 OLED Model and Switch 2 Lite straight away and just made them options. Everyone knows they’re coming, so it would be a lot fairer on people that don’t want to be caught out.I do wish you had not worked out the time from the original Switch to its OLED version though and said that means we might not get the Switch 2 edition until 2030. Not because I’m that desperate for it but because that just goes to show how long the Switch has been going and how long it’s been. I truly do believe it’s the best console ever and the length of time it’s stayed relevant just goes to show that.Gadfly Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk The funniest of us I will be very happy if Naughty Dog is working on another IP. They’ve been bogged down with The Last Of Us for too long now and I’d like to see them break out and do something new. Ideally, I’d like to see them do something a bit lighter in tone but I don’t see that happening with Neil Druckmann in charge.He even tried to make Uncharted more miserable, and took all the supernatural out of it, so I don’t know what kind of fantasy game he’d make. Probably something that would make Game Of Thrones seem light-hearted. Maybe it’s just me but given all the news from the real world at the moment I’m looking for something more hopeful and optimistic from my entertainment right now. Although given how long games take nowadays, who knows what will be going on by the time Naughty Dog’s latest is actually out.Pinky Grand Theft Horsey For me there’s no argument about Red Dead Redemption 2 being Rockstar’s best game… and one of the best games of all time. Yes, it’s too long, and that means the plot is not as focused as it should be, but that’s the only criticism I’m willing to take seriously.In terms of graphics, I’ve still never seen anything better and that goes for the open world too, which is just amazing. The amount of freedom and total non-linearity is amazing and yet the game is still able to have scripted scenes, like Arthur’s illness and the shipwreck that come out of nowhere, but which feel completely natural. An amazing game that may even end up being better than GTA 6. It’s certainly the one to beat as far as I’m concerned, as I’d put it several leagues above GTA 5.Keith Lowering expectations I am curious to know what the next mainline Pokémon game Is going to look like on Switch 2, but I really don’t know how optimistic I can be. The problem is that Pokémon has always been open world, right from the Game Boy games, so while Game Freak clearly aren’t very good at making modern 3D worlds, they kind of have to because there’s no way to take things back a notch and still be authentic to what the series is.If I was Nintendo, I would’ve sent Monolith Soft over to do all their tech for them, but that doesn’t seem to be how things work. Instead, I worry that all the talk of bugs with Violet and Scarlet will overshadow the improvements Game Freak tries to make. It would be great if their next game was bug free but if they put all their energy into that there’s going to be no time to actually improve the gameplay and try to innovate. Which has been the whole problem for at least the last decade. I just don’t know what to suggest. Based on the scale of the concept, and the popularity of the franchise, Pokémon should have the biggest budget and biggest number of staff working on it. It sells much more than Zelda and yet it looks so cheap and empty compared to it. But I don’t think Game Freak is capable of the kind of radical change necessary, to step up in the way it needs to. So I really don’t know what to expect at all from the next game, except probably disappointment.Tasker Uneven distribution Well, thanks to you guys I actually managed to bag myself a Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart and the camera from Very. I was able to put it on But Now Pay 12 months later with interest free credit and I also got 10% off the total value too (due to Very owing me a discount code).However, I was very surprised though how long Very, Argos, etc. actually had the Switch 2 in stock for. It must of been three or four days before they all sold out?HAJ GC: We’re happy to help but it was strange, especially as some bigger retailers didn’t seem to get any new stock at all. Anniversary bump After your Star Wars feature, I thought you’d be interested in knowing there’s been a massive spike in interest in playing Battlefront 2 lately. The number of people playing on Steam has shot up and it’s just outside the top 20 selling games on PlayStation 5.That’s great because I think, after all the updates, it’s a really good game, but the problem is nobody seems to have any idea why. I think it’s a combination of Andor and the re-release of Revenge of the Sith and its 20th anniversary. There’s a lot of good prequel era stuff in the game (far more than the sequels, oddly) and I think younger (or not so young now, I guess) fans appreciate that. I would be really happy if this convinced EA to make a third game, especially if it was based on the tech from the new Battlefield. I don’t know how likely that it is, but I think Battlefront is an important part of making non-Jedi elements of Star Wars work. For me it’s just a really good shooter, with some interesting weapons, vehicles, and great graphics. It is interesting to see how other media can affect games though, even if I’m sure this one was completely unanticipated by anyone.Terry Gold PS: I agree that Andor would be a much better for setting for the new XCOM clone game. The prequel setting makes no sense to me, especially given how perfect Andor would’ve been.Inbox also-rans I wonder what it would mean if Cyberpunk 2077 was a big hit on Switch 2? I’m sure Cyberpunk 2 wouldn’t work on it so would CD Projekt consider some kind of exclusive spin-off?BowieSo are we expecting the normal not-E3 Nintendo Direct next month? It’ll be pretty soon after launch so I’m not sure if there’s going to be any other announcements for a while.Toska GC: It’s very likely there’ll be a Direct in mid to late June, just like usual. Whether it’d have any new announcements is another question entirely. More Trending Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk The small printNew Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter. Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: What is Rockstar Games’ best game? GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

Jawmuncher Crisis Dino Moderator Oct 25, 2017 44,816 Ibis Island As Gamers Express Concern About Borderlands 4 Potentially Costing $80, Gearbox Chief Randy Pitchford Says: ‘If You’re a Real Fan, You’ll Find a Way to Make It Happen’ - IGN Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford has responded to a fan who expressed concern about the prospect of paying $80 for Borderlands 4, saying: “if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” www.ign.com The Quote Here's the exchange: "Randy, this game better not be 80 dollars. Don't take that risk, a lot 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." And here's Randy Pitchford's response: "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 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." Click to expand... Click to shrink... Unsure of the price, and it's not his call Last week, during a PAX East panel, Pitchford insisted that he didn't know the Borderlands 4 price but refused to rule out $80. "I'll tell you the truth. I don't know. That is the truth. I'll hit it straight on. It's an interesting time," he said. "On one level, we've got a competitive marketplace where the people that make those choices want to sell as many units as possible and they want to be careful about people that are price-sensitive. There are some folks who don't want to see prices go up, even the ones deciding what the prices are. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Take-Two Boss is open to $80 In a recent interview, IGN asked Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick if the company would go to $80 for its games. Zelnick wouldn't say either way, but did say consumers would be "willing to pay for the very best." "I have said for a long time that we offer enormous value and that that's our job," Zelnick said. "Of course, we certainly believe that compared to other forms of entertainment, whether that's movie tickets or live events or streaming services, the value for our entertainment that we offer is just astonishing, and it's our job. It's our job to deliver much more value than what we charge. That's our goal. We think consumers are willing to pay for the very best. It's our job to make the very best." Click to expand... Click to shrink... More at the Link Firstly, if the game is going to cost $80, I would HOPE that means the Switch 2 version would be on the cart. Game-Key prices are going to garner even more ire when they're used for fully priced titles instead of "cheaper" releases. With that said, 2K was one of the first publishers to instantly jump on the $70 price raise when the PS5/XSX launched, so I would definitely expect $80 to be the new norm in the US for any titles from them and Borderlands 4 being the start wouldn't be a stretch. I am curious to see how the higher base price impacts games where selling a season pass alongside it is a big deal (As DLC for BL has always been a key part of its success). Could just be everything costs more across the board, but I guess we'll see.  Last edited: Today at 10:35 AM Zukkoyaki Member Oct 25, 2017 14,279 I really like Gearbox's games but Randy is a dumbass.   Bucca Member Oct 25, 2017 5,517 fuckin lmao   Kouriozan Member Oct 25, 2017 24,800 Would not be surprised, the industry kept waiting for the moment to increase price (of AAAs) again and Nintendo just opened the way for everyone else, haha.   PlanetSmasher The Abominable Showman Member Oct 25, 2017 132,841 Even if he is technically right (I saved up my allowance for the SNES JRPGs I wanted to play in the 90s) it's really not something you come out and say.   Greywaren Member Jul 16, 2019 13,084 Spain I know there are way worse people out there, but I really, REALLY can't stand this guy. It's something visceral and every time he opens his mouth I dislike him a bit more.   Teenage Fansub Member May 24, 2019 24,228 Finding a way is waiting for it to be free on EGS.   Televoid Uncle Works at Nintendo Member Nov 28, 2024 1,443 I don't think the whole "If it works for Mario Kart and GTA, it'll work for our franchise!" is going to go the way they want it to go.   S1kkZ Member Oct 27, 2017 5,094 sell your body for BL4!   jroc74 Member Oct 27, 2017 34,026 Aaww shit.   Diogo Arez One Winged Slayer Member Oct 20, 2020 20,319 Ok Randy whatever floats your boat, I'll just wait until it's free on PS+ like usual then   ponylegs Member Jun 23, 2024 420 Brazil I'm not going to make it happen   AstralSphere Member Feb 10, 2021 13,106 Sometimes it really is better to not say anything at all. Much, much easier too. Like, before you say something publicly, think to yourself "am I about to say something incredibly out of touch that makes me sound like a prick, even if I really strongly believe it?". Randy and lot of these execs seem to lack that filter.  Kirksplosion Member Aug 21, 2018 2,661 In that case, it seems I'm not a real fan of any franchise or series.   Falchion Member Oct 25, 2017 44,397 Simply make it happen you poors.   ditusjack Member Oct 26, 2017 720 Man, the industry bout to get quite the reality check on theses prices increase.   Squirrel09 Member Nov 4, 2017 1,911 I have all the main borderlands games and never bought any of them. I can wait lol   Dust C H A O S Member Oct 25, 2017 41,028 DURING MY TIMES WE PAID $80 FOR STARFLIGHT ON SEGA GENESIS AND WERE HAPPY GOD DANG IT BOBBY   rodeo_chirb Member Jun 16, 2020 459 PlanetSmasher said: Even if he is technically right (I saved up my allowance for the SNES JRPGs I wanted to play in the 90s) it's really not something you come out and say. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Right? Like believe what you want, but this man is just constantly putting his foot in his mouth. Just end it at "not my call".   kodax_shc Member Oct 27, 2017 7,401 Southern California In 1991, the cost of living was also not insane like it is today. At $80 this game is DoA.  Bardeh Member Jun 15, 2018 3,838 Damn. Guess I'm not a real fan, sorry Randy   gary! Member Jan 17, 2024 220 Will be discounted fast   CognitiveAtrophy Member Oct 27, 2017 2,520 Or just wait a month and get it for half of that. Plus the patches it will inevitably need. There's absolutely no benefit to buying games day one.  ElectricBlanketFire What year is this? Member Oct 25, 2017 34,681 Real fans have money.   SunBroDave "This guy are sick" Member Oct 25, 2017 15,112 You really have to almost admire his unearned confidence, where the hell does he get all that from and how do I get a piece of it   Kyrios Member Oct 27, 2017 19,035 PlanetSmasher said: Even if he is technically right (I saved up my allowance for the SNES JRPGs I wanted to play in the 90s) it's really not something you come out and say. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I came in thinking he was going to say some stupid shit as usual but it really is just him saying the quiet part out loud. Still a dumb thing to say publicly, but yeah.  Arsene no Kiseki Member Oct 25, 2017 5,623 Canada Yeah I'm going to wait until its in a bundle, BL3 and Tiny Tina tanked in price fast.   FizzMino Shinra Employee Member Sep 15, 2022 5,004 Colorado, USA I mean it probably isn't his call. And what do you want him to say? "Yeah $80 sucks don't buy the game my team just spent 5 years making"?  Nemesis121 Member Nov 3, 2017 16,364 Not a real fan ain't paying $80 for a game..   julia crawford Took the red AND the blue pills Member Oct 27, 2017 40,550 this man really is talking about boots and straps   VilleEricson Member Oct 27, 2017 301 Sweden Randys comments makes me think of: "We have a console thats offline, it's called the Xbox 360" Or whatver that stupid idiot said. Same vibe. And I don't like it.  akilshohen Member Dec 8, 2017 1,439 With how borderlands 3 crashed my Xbox to reset, I think not.   Dust C H A O S Member Oct 25, 2017 41,028 He is right in that diehards will pay for sure anything.   Reedirect Member Oct 27, 2017 2,410 He always finds a way to say something dumb.   thankyoumerzbow Prophet of Truth Member Dec 8, 2020 12,202 having 70 trillion guns is really a steal for 80$   Diogo Arez One Winged Slayer Member Oct 20, 2020 20,319 ElectricBlanketFire said: Real fans have money. Click to expand... Click to shrink... At this point the gaming industry might as well forbid you from playing videogames if you aren't a CEO of a company swimming in money   Ouroboros Member Oct 27, 2017 16,117 That big "there's an xbox for you, its called the 360" energy.   ClickyCal' Member Oct 25, 2017 65,438 FizzMino said: I mean it probably isn't his call. And what do you want him to say? "Yeah $80 sucks don't buy the game my team just spent 5 years making"? Click to expand... Click to shrink... It's alienating people that may indeed be long time fans of the series, but can't afford to fork over $80 to Pitchfork.   Xando Member Oct 28, 2017 37,627 Can't wait to hear all these guys whine about how their games didn't meet expectations   SilverX Member Jan 21, 2018 15,762 $80 game and probably $50 seasons lol. Fuck off Gearbox   JakeNoseIt Catch My Drift Verified Oct 27, 2017 4,751 imagine being this addicted to own goaling yourself   maze001 Member Sep 18, 2024 644 He's right but it sounds obnoxious to say that out loud lmao. Borderlands is a series whose games are always packed with content and post-launch support so it's not like these guys are trying to sell you a 15 hour game that you'll play once and then never touch again. For games like this the value proposition is still high even at $80   Beelzebufo Member Jun 1, 2022 5,860 Canada Do Borderlands fans wake up and think "no, I can't play BL4 today"? No, they get up and make it happen!   Rosebud Two Pieces Member Apr 16, 2018 51,186 lmao, I'll wait for Humble Bundle   OP OP Jawmuncher Crisis Dino Moderator Oct 25, 2017 44,816 Ibis Island kodax_shc said: In 1991, the cost of living was also not insane like it is today. At $80 this game is DoA. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Always find it funny how that element is just ignored a lot of the time. Games used to cost $80-$100! Ignoring the fact that having a roof over your head was vastly cheaper to acquire among other things.  Gavalanche Prophet of Regret Member Oct 21, 2021 25,858 Yes, my way of making it happen is wait for a sale. There are so many games coming out, and most of tem aren't $80. For that price, I can probably buy three indies that I want. So I am patient, I will wait.  Philippo Developer Verified Oct 28, 2017 8,824 Typical Randy L. What a fucking asshole of an answer, god.  HououinKyouma The Wise Ones Member Oct 27, 2017 9,097 Am I going crazy or are gamers kinda willing this shit into existence? All these "can't wait to pay $100 for GTA6" posts are so bizarre and are becoming more and more frequent. (This is the closest I'll come to a gaming conspiracy theory lol) (Oh and this also doesn't excuse companies from milking their customers dry)  barjed Project Lead Verified Aug 31, 2018 1,802 You can't make this shit up, lol   Pancakes R Us Member Oct 27, 2017 9,280 Hah, get a second job, lads. Also, this is one of those games that'll get a discount so hold out to avoid paying the higher price if you feel 80 is too much.