Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford tells anyone worried about an $80 Borderlands 4 pricetag that ‘if you’re a real fan, you’ll make it happen,’ reminding us all of the value in choosing not to tweet

Despite what the daily millions of PR blunders, bad faith readings, knee-jerk hostilities, and people generally posting through it might indicate, choosing not to tweet is often the wiser decision. That wisdom was ignored last week by Gearbox CEO, former magician, and terminal poster Randy Pitchford, who chose of his own volition to tell a Borderlands fan that if they really loved the series they’d be fine paying any hypothetical price increase that comes their way.

In the business, we call that a “bad look.”

The unfortunate episode occurred as part of a conversation on X around a video published by Nintendo, in which Gearbox employees—including Pitchford—were interviewed about bringing Borderlands 4 to the Switch 2. As we learned in April, the Switch 2 is marching us into another moment of increasing price standards, with Mario Kart World launching at $80 MSRP.

X user @oldgoldsot replied to Pitchford’s quote tweet of the video, saying “Randy, this game better not be 80 dollars. Don’t take that risk, a lot of gamers aren’t gonna pay 80 dollars and feed this notion of constant increase of the price tag.”

“A) Not my call,” Pitchford said, shortly before causing all readers to wince and make ooo sounds, “B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” As justification, Pitchford said his local game store made him pay $80 for Starflight on the Sega Genesis, and he was able to pull that off with Pismo Beach ice cream parlor wages.

Nobody liked that.

Factually speaking, Pitchford isn’t incorrect—not about the cost of Starflight, at least. Games have cost $80 before; hell, the launch retail prices for Neo Geo games ranged from $200 to $300.

Equally true, however, is that telling a bunch of people who are facing continually rising prices when their wages have been stagnating for decades that they need to suck it up is inevitably going to piss those people off. As proof, let’s consider the engagement numbers on Pitchford’s response: At time of writing, it’s earned 1600 replies, almost 900 quotes and retweets, and just 225 likes. It’s a rough ratio, and let me tell you, the replies are even rougher.

Leading the charge was @oldgoldsot once again, who replied with an eloquent “Bro you can fuck off randy. ‘Real fan’ the fuck?” Elsewhere, user @FaultyOwls noted that “in 1991 could also rent a game for a buck, you turnip.”

Does Randy Pitchford have sole price-setting power over his company’s products? Probably not. But he does have the power not to equate being a “real” fan with a willingness to spend more money—something that would be a blatantly manipulative maneuver even if it wasn’t on behalf of a game where you’ll have to suffer Claptrap’s yelling for another half-dozen quests. If you’re lucky.