The videogame discourse cycle does another lap, racing past "videogames are too easy" and "singleplayer is back" and hitting the straight of "videogames are too expensive" one more time. This time Borderlands 4 is the game, $US80 is the potential price, and Randy Pitchford found himself at the head of the pack after saying that "if you're a real fan, you'll make it happen" and pointing out that "Game budgets are increasing … it's getting gnarly out there".
Reaction to the idea that a "real fan" would pony up a higher price wasn't great, with people who own thousands of dollars worth of Funko Pops expressing outrage at the suggestion they were the kind of people who will pay anything for New Content. It didn't help that Take-Two updated the EULAs for the Borderlands series to say it was totally OK for the publisher to vacuum up players' personal information in exchange for getting to shoot at shouty men in masks for a bit, and a review-bombing followed.
