If Borderlands 4 costs £80 Gearbox's boss thinks you should pay it
Randy Pitchford thinks that 'real fans' will 'find a way to make it happen' if Borderlands 4 ends up costing £80, but he insists the price isn't up to him.
It's true that the price of video games has varied little since gaming went mainstream in the 80s and 90s. Back in 1991, the average price of a movie ticket in the UK was £3.03 and it's now close to £8.
And yet, at the same time, SNES games were regularly £50 to £60, with the occasional high-end title, such as Starwing (aka Star Fox), costing even more. And that's ignoring the cost of import games – at a time when many games were never released in the UK – which could easily cost £100 or more.
Not only has the face value of the games barely increased but adjusted for inflation, £50 in 1991 would be over £113 today. And yet the idea of paying £80 for Borderlands 4 has caused outrage even amongst fans of the series.
It's becoming increasingly likely that £80/$80 will become the norm for triple-A video games in the near future, with Mario Kart World costing £75 for the physical version (although no other Switch 2 game is that much and it's cheaper on digital) and Microsoft warning all its games are set to increase to $80 from this Christmas.
Other publishers are expected to follow suit, with particular concern over rumours that GTA 6 will end up costing £100 or more – which other publishers will also try to copy once it's released next May.
At the same time, it's expected that the idea of a set price for most video games will also become a thing of the past, with Nintendo already embracing the idea of dynamic pricing, as well as Rockstar Games owner Take-Two – who is only charging £45 for the upcoming Mafia: The Old Country.
That makes it very difficult to guess how much this year's Borderlands 4 is going to cost, since it's also published by Take-Two, although many fans fear it will be $80/£80.
A reader asked Randy Pitchford, co-founder of developer Gearbox, about the issue on X and got an unexpected reply: '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 [aka Mega Drive] for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlour in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.'
You can imagine how that went down with fans, with many not believing that it's not Pitchford's decision – which it isn't, although he probably can have some influence over publisher Take-Two.
We can't repeat some of the more impassioned responses to his tweet but Synth Potato insisted that, 'Dawg we are NOT paying $80 for a Borderlands game fully knowing you'll do multiple season passes that cost another $100 and you'll probably sell weapon skins too.'
One of the more sage replies came from Jared Shapiro, who asked: 'How many units of Starflight were sold in total? How many units of Borderland 4 do you expect to move?' As he implies, Starflight was extremely niche and did not sell well, especially not on the Mega Drive.
'The $80 price point wasn't a thing when it [Borderlands 4] went into development, why not keep it at the targeted $70 to show your fans some good will? Maybe keep the budget in check for the next one and you can get it out at $60 and get praise like [Clair Obscur:] Expedition 33 and the Oblivion remake got for pushing out at $50,' he added.
This is not the first time Pitchford has claimed not to know how much the game will be sold for, which may be true, but a decision needs to be made soon as it's supposed to be out on September 12.
'It's an interesting time,' he said at the PAX East event at the weekend, via IGN. '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.'
'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,' he added.
Borderlands 4's price may be a step too far for some fans (Take-Two Interactive)
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