Gearbox Software boss Randy Pitchford has found himself in hot water this week after saying that real fans would “find a way” to buy the upcoming Borderlands 4, even if it did launch with an $80 price tag. But it’s not just fans who are reacting badly – Baldur’s Gate 3‘s publishing director Michael Douse has even chimed in on the “gross” comments.
To quickly catch everyone up, last week, Randy Pitchford responded to a fan worried about whether Borderlands 4 would also adopt the $80 pricing of Mario Kart World. “If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” the executive said, before recalling the time he spent $80 on a Sega Genesis game three decades ago – a purchase that was probably more affordable to the son of a US intelligence system tech senior in 1991 than it is for the average gamer in our cursed year of 2025.
“Inflation exists (we give inflation bumps for example to employees) and price increases can make sense,” Douse responded on social media, “but saying ‘real fans will find a way’ is gross because it assumes your game is more important during a cost of living crisis than, for example, making it day to day.”
“Real fans are people who love & understand what you do, keep track, and engage with your shit regardless of how much they spend,” Douse added. When asked whether Baldur’s Gate 3 would also have had a $80 asking price, Douse said even if it did, “we would probably not suggest people do whatever they can to buy it, lest they not be real fans.” Ouch.
Either way, neither publisher 2K Games or parent company Take-Two have announced how much the new looter shooter will cost when it comes out this September. Best case scenario: the game’s actually been $70 all along and Pitchford caused a hullaballoo over nothing. Otherwise, he’s just made fans more antagonistic toward an $80 game than they already would’ve been because, well, $80 is a lot.
