Unfortunately, the games industry looks dead set on making $80 games happen. Collectively as an audience, it’s fair to say that we have still yet to fully come to terms with the increase from the standard $60 price for a new AAA release to the $70 it has gone up this console generation, but already, we’re on the verge of another price increase. Multiple major players have taken that step already, with Nintendo having gone first with an $80 price tag for Mario Kart World and Microsoft then having announced shortly afterward that its own first party Xbox releases would be priced the same going forward.
Now, it’s also looking like there’s a distinct possibility that the upcoming Borderlands 4 will be an $80 title as well. Worse still, it seems like developer Gearbox Entertainment – or at the very least its CEO, Randy Pitchford – believes that the onus is on you as the audience to find a way to pay that price- you know, if you really cared enough and wanted to prove just how big of a fan you were. Though official word on Borderlands 4’s pricing hasn’t yet been shared by either Gearbox or publisher 2K, Randy Pitchford already seems to be trying to justify an $80 price tag- and he’s doing it in the worst way possible.
When asked recently on Twitter by a fan about the possibility of Borderlands 4 being priced at $80 when it launches in September, after first saying that the price wasn’t his decision to make, Pitchford went on to add that “real” fans will “find a way” to buy the game even if it were priced at the much higher $80 price tag. As you might imagine, that hasn’t gone down well with the masses. Though being outraged at pricing decisions by publishers is something that gaming audiences have never been a stranger to, executives telling people how to spend their money has never gone down well with people, and it’s no shock that Pitchford’s comments have also sparked controversy.
All of that outrage is also very well earned, as even a cursory look at the situation should tell you. Yes, economic conditions are the primary reason behind the consistent increases in prices in the games industry these last few years, but it is also because of those very same conditions that those prices are looking increasingly unreasonable. And that’s just for starters, because the list of reasons why Pitchford’s comments about Borderlands 4’s potential pricing are as tone-deaf and misguided as they are is a long one.
Because even if you were to focus solely on Borderlands 4 itself and how its pricing could impact things, it shouldn’t take much to realize that an $80 price point might not be the best possible idea. As the last few years have shown us, even a $70 price point is high enough that a good chunk of games aren’t going to be able to justify it to audiences, making it almost self-selecting in a way- unless your game is of a certain stature at minimum, there’s a good chance it’s going to buckle under the $70 price tag.
Kick that price up to $80, and those requirements begin looking even steeper, which means only the biggest of the biggest games should likely be considering that price. Your Mario Karts and Grand Theft Autos, for instance, are juggernauts in and of themselves, to the extent that even an $80 price point isn’t going to do an awful lot to dissuade the majority of their prospective audience from buying in, but the list of games and franchises that can claim to be that big with hardcore and casual audiences alike is a short one.
Many might argue that Borderlands has a place on that list. The looter shooter franchise is obviously a hugely successful one, having enjoyed stellar sales with each of its entries, in particular the mainline ones, but is it a big enough franchise to not be affected by sudden and steep pricing increases? Borderlands by its very nature is the sort of series that attracts a large number of casual players who, if they have cheaper alternatives, likely will go for those alternatives, and in the looter shooter space, there’s never any shortage of options. Especially for a game that we know is going to have plenty of paid monetization options as well, the idea of a $80 price tag seems like a particularly difficult pill to swallow.
So if the next Borderlands game that comes out should suddenly be priced $20 higher than its predecessor was when it launched just six years ago, how high are the chances that a not insignificant portion of the series’ audience will be put off by that hike? It seems safe to say that the chances are pretty high. Randy Pitchford suggests that true, hardcore Borderlands fans will find a way to pay whatever the price of admission is for the pleasure of being able to play the series’ next mainline offering, but the series in question has done an incredible job of fostering a large casual audience over the years, which means by its very nature, it’s not suited to that line of thinking, especially where pricing decisions are concerned.
Obviously, that is not to say that Borderlands 4 is going to flop if it is priced at $80- no, not by any stretch of the imagination. This is still Borderlands, after all, which, as we touched on, is one of the biggest and most successful gaming franchises around. To at least a certain extent, it is the sort of franchise that is going to be successful even if it sees higher than usual price increases. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see its sales being at least somewhat impacted compared to past releases because of higher pricing (if it is indeed released at a higher price, that is) – to the extent that that arguably almost seems like a certainty – you’d also imagine that even with those dips taken into account, the game is still going to end up doing very well for itself where its sales are concerned, especially in the long run (which is where Borderlands is usually at its best).
It does raise the question, however, of how far publishers are going to be willing to push their luck with pricing decisions. An $80 price point is going to be difficult to take for Borderlands 4 if it does end up happening as it is, but when you add to that shockingly thoughtless and hilariously tone-deaf statements from gaming executives like what we have from Pitchford here, the situation just becomes that much more frustrating.
How much a AAA game should be worth is a whole another discussion, and one that is certainly worth having, especially when you look at how game development budgets have ballooned over the years- Borderlands 4 itself, for instance, more than doubled the budget that its predecessor was built on. There is an argument to be made that game development as we know it today just might not be sustainable in the long run (or even in the short run) without price increases- that is still easy to understand for consumers, even if price increases are never easy to swallow. But demanding that fans prove their fandom by being willing to pony up whatever price the company slaps on its game? That is definitely not how to get your prospective audience to buy your game.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.