When it comes to discount sales for video games, there are typically three types that occur. The first is because of age. As in, a game has been around for so long that its price drops a bit to make it more “fair” to buy. Then, there are “intentional sales” via stores or places like Steam, which often hold special “seasonal sales” on a wide swath of games. Then, there are those games that never drop in price. Ever. Yeah, those publishers can be a bit stubborn, but it’s their call. With Borderlands 4, Gearbox Software head Randy Pitchford said once the title was released, a sale wasn’t going to happen for a while. Except, it has, and now, it’s been expanded even further.
Last week, Gearbox’s latest title went on sale via Steam, and everyone took notice due to how quickly it happened post-launch. Now, thanks to some eagle-eyed spotting from The Gamer, it’s been revealed that many online stores, including Walmart and Amazon, are selling physical copies of Borderlands 4 for a discount, too. Just as important, the physical copies are going for about $55, which is a $15 drop from the standard price, and it’s cheaper than what Steam did with its discount.
So, the question here is, why is this happening? Why did Gearbox Software “flinch” and drop the price of their title? The easiest answer might be backlash. As in, the backlash that fans and critics have been giving the game since its launch. Recall that this game had been in development for about six years, and that Gearbox Software had a much better boss this time around via publisher Take-Two Interactive.
With all those factors, one might have thought the game would’ve shot out of a cannon at full speed with the proper impact on fans as a result. While the game did sell a couple of million copies in its first few days, the backlash from fans over optimization, questionable UI, bugs, and more has been long and enduring. Gearbox Software still hasn’t fixed everything fans want, and when the team tries to post about something else related to them or the franchise, the gamers come in and demand that things get fixed sooner rather than later.
So, thus, the price drop might be in relation to that, as they’re trying to “bring more people in,” even if the game isn’t exactly fixed yet. Will it work? Only time will tell that.
