Borderlands 4 Price Controversy: Is $80 the New Standard, and Who is a “Real Fan”?
The AAA video game industry is facing significant criticism, with many gamers feeling taken advantage of after years of passion and support. The days of paying $60 for a complete game seem to be a distant memory for “old heads” like us. Nowadays, you often pay $60 for a game that’s “broken on day one” and requires months to fix, meaning you’re frequently “far better off buying it six months down the road when it’s 50% off on a Steam sale”. We live by these rules, only buying games on release day if we’re absolutely diehard fans.
Enter Borderlands 4, announced with excitement by Randy Pitchford, head of Borderlands, for the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2. While the Borderlands series is “much beloved” and has sold “tens of millions of copies,” we found Borderlands 2 enjoyable but Borderlands 3 less so, often purchasing these games significantly discounted later.
The controversy erupted when someone responded to Pitchford’s announcement, urging that the game “better not be $80” and not to feed the notion of constantly increasing price tags. This fan highlighted that the CEO has some say with their publisher when it comes to price. We agree; there’s an “undercurrent of conversation from these video game publishers that games need to game prices need to go up,” which we believe is “simply not true”. We point out that the $60 or $70 initial price is often just the beginning; companies then charge another $20 for content that should have been included, sell online live services, and profit from microtransactions and endless skins. The idea that the industry “has no choice” but to raise prices to $80 is “ridiculous”. We believe that if you want $80, you need to provide $80 in value.
Randy Pitchford’s reply only fueled the fire. He stated, “A, not my call,” which we called “BS” because he’s the CEO. More controversially, he added, “B, if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” drawing a comparison to himself buying Starflight on Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 while working minimum wage in high school. We found this response deeply problematic. We argued that as a kid with a part-time job and “no expenses,” you could indeed spend all your money on games, unlike many people today who aren’t living “rent free” and are expected to buy the game. Furthermore, we questioned the $80 price point for Starflight in 1991, and highlighted that unlike modern games, that purchase likely got you “a complete game” with “everything,” without constant updates, needing to free up storage, or buying additional content later. We even checked, and Starflight for Sega Genesis appears to be worth much less now, with original stickers showing prices around $9.99 years ago, not $80.
Pitchford attempted to further explain the situation, stating it’s an “interesting time” with a competitive marketplace where developers want to sell many units but must be “careful about people that are price sensitive”. However, he also mentioned “folks accepting the reality that budgets are increasing and there’s tariffs for the retail packaging”. We reacted strongly to this, questioning why tariffs on physical boxes matter when “literally nobody buys in the store” and blaming costs like paying actors millions or high CEO salaries for increasing budgets. “It is not our fault you don’t know how to control your budget,” we stated, arguing that celebrity endorsements and other “crap” aren’t needed to make a good game. We noted we’re currently playing a great game, Clara Obscura Expedition 33, which cost just $40.
Pitchford claimed Borderlands 4 has “more than twice the development budget” of Borderlands 3. We reiterate, “That’s not our problem”. We suspect he “knows it’s going to be $80, $79.99”. The concern isn’t just the initial price, but the expectation of additional season passes and parts of the game being “pulled from the game and want to sell it back to you later as DLC,” unlike some add-ons like Far Cry New Dawn which felt like a separate, albeit expensive, story.
Pitchford confirmed pre-orders will open in June, which is when the price will be set. He framed their philosophy as being “entertainers” who “want to get more resources so we can make bigger and better games”. He attributed the increased budget for Borderlands 4 to fans supporting Borderlands 3, saying “when the venue comes in, we could spend it to make better bigger bigger games and better games”. As artists, he claimed, they “want everybody to have it”.
We responded by saying, “I don’t believe you. I’m not saying you have to sell your game for free. I’m just saying this is BS”. We believe he’s “testing the market” and will likely come in at $70 or $80, with “super deluxe moron edition for $100”. The backlash isn’t just about the price but the wording. While some might argue “Every game’s going to be $80 by this time next year,” calling fans who won’t pay the demanded price not “real fans” is “entitled, swarmmy, and lame”. We, like most people, won’t be paying $80 for Borderlands 4 and will “wait for it to be 20 bucks on on Steam”.
