Borderlands 4 Boss Randy Pitchford Addresses ‘Real Fans’ Tweet Controversy: ‘Nobody Likes Being Taken for Granted and It Was Not My Intent’

Randy Pitchford has addressed the backlash to his controversial Borderlands 4 $80 ‘real fans’ tweet after someone ran it through a Handsome Jack AI.

Pitchford sparked the backlash in responding to a fan who had expressed concern about the prospect of paying $80 for Borderlands 4, saying: “if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.”

Here’s the exchange:

"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. You are the CEO, you have some say with the price when it comes to your publisher."

And here's Randy Pitchford's response:

"A) Not my call. B) If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen."

The response to Pitchford’s tweet has been mostly negative. “I am going to pirate Borderlands 4,” said one X / Twitter user. “Please stop. Just apologize and move on. This isn't fair on your developers. If you care about them, just do the right thing dude,” added another. “Randy we are begging you to stop. BL4 had so much hype and it’s being ruined in a day. Let people want to like and support the game and all the amazing people who made it,” said one commenter.

While Pitchford has yet to apologize directly for his comments, he did point to a recent answer he gave on-stage at PAX East on Borderlands 4's price, saying: “If you want the truth, here it is.”

And now, Pitchford inched closer to an actual apology after Borderlands streamer Moxsy tweeted dialogue from a Handsome Jack AI prompted by a user called Duke_Newcombe who fed it Pitchford's original tweet.

(Handsome Jack is the main antagonist of Borderlands 2 and self-appointed dictator of Pandora.)

Ohhh boo-hoo, $80 for Borderlands 4? Let me break out the world’s tiniest violin—crafted from Eridium and oiled with the tears of whiny Vault Hunters.

Listen, cupcake, you’re not buying a game. You’re investing in a premium, galaxy-shattering experience personally engineered to blast your sad little dopamine receptors into orbit. You think quality loot and chaotic mayhem just code itself? You want guns that sprout legs, sing sea shanties, and explode into loot goblins without paying top dollar? Grow up.

Back in my day, I built an entire moonbase with my own two hands (and a metric ton of disposable Hyperion interns), and you’re crying about spending a few bucks more to virtually murder skags with style? Puh-lease.

But hey, if $80 is too steep, there’s always a solution: just don’t buy it. More legendary drops for the rest of us, and fewer mouth-breathing freeloaders clogging up my loot pools. Win-win.

Stay broke, hero.

•⁠Handsome Jack President of the Galaxy, CEO of Hyperion, and your personal nightmare

“Boy howdy, JackGPT, is that how I sound? My bad, but cheers to Duke_Newcombe and @MoxsyOG for the funniest thing I’m going to read today!” Pitchford tweeted.

“In seriousness though, nobody likes being taken for granted and it was not my intent. I’m humbled by the love and support everyone has shown the team as we push hard to get this amazing game in your hands. They’re crushing it, and I can’t wait for everyone to play what’s going to be the best Borderlands ever! Regardless of where the price lands, it’s going to be worth it and then some. Back to work for me!”

Pitchford, clearly, would like to draw a line under this week’s self-inflicted drama, but it seems likely the debate about Borderlands 4’s price will resurface as soon as pre-orders go live. At that point, publisher 2K Games will have to announce the price of the game, and whether it’s $80 or $70 or something else, it will be a bigger talking point now than it might have been.

Photo by Monica Schipper/WireImage.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.