Gearbox Software co-founder and CEO Randy Pitchford is going full PT Barnum for the release of Borderlands 4, bullishly telling everyone that this is going to be the best Borderlands since sliced bread, and wading into online fights to tell the doubters to “play the game first.” Heck he even pulled a Todd Howard: “you see something anywhere on the screen, a mile away, up in the sky, you will be able to get there.”
Speaking at PAX East (thanks, GR+), Pitchford now says the development team is “on offense” and, apparently, this is the game he needs in his life right now.
“Look, sometimes we’re white-knuckling to the landing,” Pitchford said, referring to past Gearbox titles. “And we’ve got a lot of work to do, we’re working our asses off, but the momentum is insane. The velocity is insane.
“I don’t think we’ve ever been in a better spot this far from launch as we are right now with Borderlands 4. And I’m really stoked because I kind of need a game like this right now, you know? I kind of need this. So I’m stoked to play it.”
Unlike a certain other Take-Two title, Borderlands 4’s release date was recently moved forwards: it’s now out on September 12 (it was due September 23). That’s because, in Pitchford’s words, the team is “cooking” and the game is “awesome.” This guy really would do a good job as a carnival barker.
Pitchford also touched on price, specifically in relation to Nintendo setting the new Mario Kart World at an eye-watering $80.
“It’s an interesting time,” says Pitchford. “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.”
That sounds… potentially expensive. Pitchford spiels a little more about how more revenue means bigger and better games in future, but at the same time “we want everyone who buys and plays a Gearbox game to feel certain that they got the better end of the bargain.”
Pitchford says the game’s price will be set “soon,” and it “might be the new price that Nintendo and Microsoft have led with” or “it might be that we stay back.”
Finally, it’s always good to end with a gag: this one taking aim at the people lamenting the absence of a minimap in the game’s HUD.
“If it is cheaper, maybe we’ll sell you that minimap that you guys want that we’ll develop later,” smiled Pitchford. “How bad do you want that? $10? I don’t know. I’m just kidding.”
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