Following his controversial comments about a potential Borderlands 4 $80 price tag, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has offered “the truth” behind his statement.

Last week, Pitchford said that “real fans” would be prepared to pay whatever it cost to play Borderlands 4, but that he wasn’t in control of its eventual price – which may or may not be $80. Those comments have been hit with significant backlash, with many accusing Pitchford of being out of touch given the current economic climate.

In an apparent response, Pitchford took to Twitter again this morning. In a post stating, “If you want the truth, here it is,” the Gearbox boss linked a clip from the recent Borderlands 4 panel at PAX East. During that panel, he was asked directly what the game would cost, but stated, “I’ll tell you the truth – I don’t know.”

Pitchford went on to acknowledge that “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.” That sensitivity extends, apparently, to “even the ones deciding what the prices are,” some of whom “don’t want to see prices go up.”

He also points out that “there are other folks accepting the reality that game budgets are increasing, and there are tariffs for the retail packaging, and it’s getting gnarly out there.” While the budget for Borderlands 4 is more than twice that of Borderlands 3, I would suggest that gnarliness does extend to the economic situation for…basically everyone else, but Pitchford does tap into a relevant point – game development costs are growing faster than players’ desire to pay for those games, and that’s an existential issue for the industry at large. Perhaps, however, there’s a better way to express that by saying ‘just make it work’.

It’s been a rough week for Borderlands, which is also facing a review-bombing campaign over its new license agreement.