Asmongold TV - Not again.. | Asmongold

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

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Gearbox chief, Randy Pitchford, has responded to a fan who expressed concern about the prospect of paying $80 for Borderlands 4. And he said, this is Randy said, if you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen. And we'll go and we'll find the article right here and we're going to see what he said. We're not talking about a $60 game. We're not even talking about a $70 game. we're talking about an $80 game. Holy shit. What the hell is going on?

And so anyway, let's go back over here, responding to one fan, and this is him responding right here. Let's go here. And this is what he said, and obviously we've got to actually find the original one. A, it's not my call. B, if you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starlight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pizmo Beach and I found a way to make it happen. And so this is the guy. This is him.

I want to make sure everybody knows this is the guy of what it is. No, Boomer? Yep, exactly, right? This is Boomer Logic, definitely. And anyway, so he made this comment and he talked about it. And Randy, this game better not be $80. don't take that risk. A lot of gamers aren't going to pay $80. And you're the CEO. You have something with price.

And when it comes to your publisher. And he says, number one, not my call. Well, you could have just said that, and that would have been enough. And Pitchfords comments created a lot of pitchforks. Yeah, I could assume so. I don't know why you didn't use that as a voniferous response. What a, you could have had much better wordplay here. But that's all right. Mistakes happen. Anyway, I'll tell you the truth. I don't know. That's the truth. It's interesting time.

And so he doesn't know whether the game is going to be $80 or not. So video games, and this is what I responded by, now, every year this guy gets reincarnated. Is Randy this year's guy? Is it him? I think it just might be. Please, man? Yes, it actually could be him.

And so, yeah, mobile time, exactly. And yeah, Wyatt Chang, yeah, he might be the new guy. An $80 game. Is this the no cell phone guy? Yes. Who was it last year? Last year was the Ubisoft CEO or not CEO executive that said gamers should probably get used to not owning video games. But to be fair, that was also a, it was a misattacher.

It was clipped in a way that was unfair, right? Oh, it being a quadruplea game. Yeah, the quadruplea game was the problem. Not even the not owning games, because I always thought that was unfair. So anyway, I said this. I responded, I said the funny thing is this is true for many game franchises. Final Fantasy from software, Baldersgate, but I don't think this is true for Borderlands.

After watching all of the trailers and gameplay footage, I just don't see how another mediocre, millennial humor, looter shooter is worth $80. Are people going to spend, $80 for for yes dozens of them will spend $80

for borderlands for now the real question is will they make their money back check the survey well no I don't check surveys surveys don't matter this is like a really good example everybody says

I don't like gamers vote on what they want to be true, not what is true. I don't listen to what people say. I listen to what they do. That's it. And so, yeah, $60, yeah, I don't care about votes. I care about dollars.

And I care about player count. The fact is that more and more video games are adopting a lower price point model, and it has gone extremely well. It has been massively, massively successful. And the truth is that people would pay $80 for a video game, just not a... I mean like, why pay $80 for this game when you can play the first descendant?

What the hell are we doing? What the hell are we doing? Going around talking about playing this shit when you could just go play the first descendant for no fucking reason for that. And so there is literally no... Or Expedition 33. Yes.

Well, I'm talking about another looter shooter game or war frame. Yes. And so this guy is going out and saying it is an $80 game and you're going to make it happen. people will make it happen if you're a real fan

you'll make a way to make it happen the problem is that these games aren't good enough for people to do that this seems like a toxic answer no it's a true answer and and Randy is right in a way but he's wrong in thinking

that his game is going to garner that level of popularity it's just not going to happen every other game it is toxic to be honest yeah I don't really care I mean I don't think it's a big deal to say this but like I'm going to buy it in $20 when it's on sale in six months. So that's bold for you to assume that they're going to sell up for full price for an entire.

What do you call it? Yeah, this is, it's, I don't know if I want to scroll down too much farther for that. But anyway, Borderlands was niche, so it's going to flop. Well, the game, I think, is probably going to do relatively well. I think Borderlands 4 is probably going to have a doomed to dark ages level success, where it's relatively successful, a decent amount of people play the game, but it's not a massive hit and it's not a breakout success. It's going to be just kind of like another day.

That's kind of what I am assuming more than anything. Yeah, that's what I'm assuming. It'll be better in Borderlands 3. But what's this here? Borderlands 3 sold 22 million copies with all the negativity launch. I don't think it matters much for this series. So what you don't understand is the stacking debuff of how controversies and negative feedback and criticism affect a game.

down the road. So like what happens is that a game gets a lot of negative controversy and negative criticism and then that happens to it enough and before you know it, now nobody cares about the game anymore. And that's the issue that happens with a lot of these studios is that immediately it doesn't have an effect. And like for example, like look at Shadowlands. So Battle for Azroth was a pretty shitty expansion in a lot of ways. And because of that, Shadowlands, I think people were frustrated, but they still bought Shadowlands. Shadowlands was more of the same for Battle for Azaroth, and because of that, Dragon Flight was a flop.

And so what happens is that there's a ripple effect of bad releases that are not observed immediately, but they're observed over time. And so, Wow Brain, no, I've shown this before, eh? No, listen, I can show this with POE releases. I can show this with, let me think, besides that, look at Lords of the Fallen, for example, right? like they massively improved the game

but because the game wasn't good on launch then people will not come back and play it and try it again because they've already made their decision that like that ripple has already happened and think about how hard like look at Assassin's Creed that's another great example so Ubisoft

I bet Star Wars outlaws was not an awfully like a terribly badly selling game but the problem is that Star Wars outlaws negatively impacted Assassin's Creed shadows because it created a pattern of behavior of mediocre products. And so same with X Defiant was.

So after bad video games come out, bad video games set the stage and set the tone for future bad video games. It kind of happened with cyberpunk. Yes. Well, there are games that bounce back and that's true. But can we all agree that these are the vast minority? And also, it's not like when Cyberpunk too, like the Phantom Liberty came out and the 2.0 update came out, nobody was looking at the

2.0 update the same way that they're looking at Borderlands 4. Like, let's be honest here. Borderlands 4 is just another, it seems like, generic looter shooter game. There's nothing crazy or amazing about this game. This isn't revolutionizing anything. It's not some insane, high-quality game. It's just going to be another looter shooter game. It's going to be fine, right? it'll be probably your average six to eight out of ten depending on what your interests are maybe a five if you really don't like the genre and that's going to be about it and so cyberpunk's issues will affect the witcher four for sure um yeah and i do think that there will be people that will be apprehensive about buying the witcher four on release because of the release of cyberpunk and i think this does definitely happen and it doesn't mean it's going to affect and hurt the witcher four completely but it will affect it and if you don't understand that brand value and how that affects things. And so, like, think about it like this. Let's take a step back and let's think about something because we're talking about

abstractions. Let's talk about person. Let's talk about your personal experiences. Have you ever had times where a streamer that you were watching had a few bad streams and then you stopped watching them? It's not like you watch somebody, they have one bad stream, and then you just decide, oh, I'm done with this person. usually that's something that takes time and over that time

then you decide that you're no longer interested right no I ain't a bitch yeah exactly and so TV shows are the same way and so it's usually not one flop but it's multiple flops and so like I remember a chance you know soda poppin said that you're only as good as your last two streams I think that's the way that a lot of video game studios are and that's the way a lot of entertainment is in general is that you're only it's not what have you done? It's what have you done lately? And if you've created bad products in the past, people are going to expect you to make bad products in the future. And so if you don't have a very good reputation, Borderlands 3, let me guess, was Borderlands 2 popular? Extremely. So Borderlands

3 also sold extremely well, logically, right? Borderlands 3 probably wasn't as popular as Borderlands 2, maybe. And so is that, is that accurate? Three was great? Was Three also good? I don't know. And so, yeah, think about like Halo. I think Halo is a great example. Like, Halo probably has gone downhill every installment of Halo. And I think that's it. Three was woke slop. Three was ass. Three was bad. A lot of people don't really like three.

And so that's the way that video games work is that it's not about one bad patch or one bad game. It's about multiple bad games and the ripple effect of that behavior. that's what happens and that's the issue and this is that this is what i think randy doesn't understand is that he's in he is coming into a market that right now in 1991 whenever he bought uh you know whatever video game he's talking about uh that doesn't matter because there was only seven other video games on the market now there's 7000 other video games on the market and so you're competing in a market that's much more challenging and you have to deliver a product that's much higher quality. And if you can't deliver that product, it's higher quality and you can't

compete in that market, then you lose. That's all there is to it. So it's compounding. Yes, it's compounding. And streamers have this happen too. How many streamers do you know that have done the exact same formula for years and for a while they were really popular and then the formula got stale and then they lost popularity. Wow streamers? Yes, exactly. Right? And that's it. Fair. Yeah, a lot of people. And so, like, and I even think about this for myself. I'm like, oh, okay, I need to be doing, like, I've always got new ideas of, like, ways to, like, kind of spice things up, to make things more exciting. That way people can, you know, like, have something new to look at, something new to watch, etc.

And that's what matters the most. You know, bro, we only watch you. That's actually true. A lot of and my viewers do only watch me. Like, I don't, like, I have some overlap with other people. Of course I do. But with most people, I do not. Like, I have my viewers, and that's it. And really, there's nobody else really, I mean, like, that's even, like, I mean, Kai obviously is really popular, right?

And there's, like, a couple of other people, but, like, it's at least in my circle that streams it around my time slot. There's really nobody that's even, like, really that close. And, uh, I think that's it. And the reason why, honestly, is because of YouTube. It's because of YouTube and other platforms. That's the big reason. And, you know, I got to do more, I got to do more stuff on Instagram.

That's the other thing. We got to do more on Instagram and get to work over there. So, yeah, I did see that post from him, and I think he's a moron. And if he doesn't understand the reason why it's different, I don't really know what to tell him.