With the cost of gaming becoming relatively unsustainable due to a considerable number of reasons including the effects of tariffs on the tech industry, global inflation rates, and an ever-evolving economic climate, video games are becoming quite the costly hobby. Fortunately, we have Gearbox CEO and social media “cool guy” Randy Pitchford to tell us how poor and dispassionate we all are.
Pitchford is well known at this point for his misguided and out of touch takes like this one from 2019 about Steam going the way of the dinosaurs:
Well, Ol’ Randy has taken to social media again to reply to comments regarding the upcoming release of Borderlands 4, which will be getting a Nintendo Switch 2 launch. The issue is that Nintendo has previously indicated that first-party Switch 2 games will start at $80, and many fear that this will extend to other games as well. When a fan of the franchise commented on the potential price, Pitchford’s response was less than diplomatic.
Now, despite gaming becoming slightly more accessible and affordable to players through the implementation of services like Xbox and PC Game Pass, game and console prices continue to rise, and many of these services keep jacking up prices to supplement these companies’ bottom lines. It also seems as though publishers are waiting to see how some of these $80 games sell on launch, before deciding on prices for their upcoming releases, with Borderlands 4 becoming a likely subject of this potential change.
“Real fans” would find a way to pay $80 for Borderlands 4, Pitchford said. Randy needs to realize that there are a lot of people who are real fans of food and clean water that aren’t able to make that happen, and on the flip side I’m a real fan of Bugatti, but I don’t have 2.4 million dollars to spend on a car! Being a fan of something does not automatically make it available to you, nor does it oblige you to shell out more than you believe its value to be.
Maybe just as notably, though less annoyingly, Pitchford made it clear that it is not his decision on how games are priced. He’s the Gearbox CEO, so I would think he would have some say in the distribution of his company’s products, and perhaps he is finding a way to shift the blame and pass the buck to the next guy down the line.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick stated that they will not be committing to $80 games for every release, and are taking the “variable pricing” approach, so there’s still hope that Borderlands 4 and other future releases may still be priced closer to the $70 range, but even that seems steep for the quality of product being developed in this economic stage.
Given the fact that console and accessory prices are continuing to rise, it not only feels out of touch, but it reads as irresponsible for Randy Pitchford to essentially tell fans of the series to work harder and spend more money to show their loyalty to him and the brand.
It feels twisted and rotten, but also, it’s his prerogative as CEO to behave however he believes best represents the company. What will happen to the company and its legacy if he continues to show his disconnection… well, that’s a story yet to be told.
Borderlands 4 releases on September 12th for Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2. Will you be picking up a copy even if it’s $80? Perhaps you’ll wait for a sale? Or maybe you’ll boycott the price raises altogether, and go back and play some older games for a while until the industry realizes how out of touch they’ve gotten? Let’s see how this plays out.
