I really used to love our series of posts on how companies and content creators can build more revenue and loyalty with their customers through what we called the “Connect with Fans and a Reason to Buy” philosophy. Shortened to “Cwf+RtB,” the idea is that by treating fans in an awesome and human way, concerns about things like piracy and positive fan feedback could be melted away by building a loyal fanbase through a human connection such that people simply wanted to hand over their hard-earned money to support content creators. By dropping the corporate sheen just a bit and connecting with people on their level, so many creators and companies have built a rabid fanbase that has no interest in taking actions that would prevent these creators from making money at their craft.
But the opposite also applies in reverse. Treat your fans poorly, or fail to connect with them on a human level, and you’re bound to get yourself into trouble. In a world of rising prices within the various entertainment mediums, this becomes all the more dangerous. Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox, is learning this lesson right now after responding to concerns about the new Borderlands game being priced at $80 by essentially employing the “no true Scotsman” fallacy.
Believe it or not, there’s a lot to unpack here. The most important aspect of this is that this is the sort of response that indicates both a severe lack of judgment in communicating with customers combined with a disconnect with the reality of how most people live. We’ll get into the latter part of that further down. The judgment miss is this: even if everything Pitchford wrote above were true, and it very much is not, you don’t say this sort of thing out loud. Put another way, the message above accomplishes absolutely nothing productive for either fans of the Borderlands series nor Gearbox. Anyone who was going to pay $80 for the new game last week likely still will after this comment was made, save those pissed enough about the messaging to change their mind. Those who were hesitant to spend that much on the new game certainly aren’t going to be swayed by a “you will if you’re a true fan” message. And those who have never played the series will be put off by this message. Again, nothing positive accomplished.
It’s the “no true Scotsman” fallacy at work, but with the Scotsman being a gamer, apparently. “$80 is too much for the game,” goes some of the gaming public, with the response being “Not if you’re a real fan.” So those who bought the previous games for less and loved them aren’t truly fans in the eyes of Gearbox? Cool.
And the game of implications Pitchford is attempting to play here probably isn’t valid either.
Randy Pitchford grew up in Fairfax, Virginia, then California. His father worked in U.S. intelligence in the 1970s, and his house was filled with all manner of technology throughout his childhood. While I cannot say for sure (although I have emailed to find out), it seems vanishingly unlikely that Pitchford was living off of his minimum wage ice cream job after he’d graduated high school, as his tweet seems to want to heavily imply. Pitchford soon after went to UCLA, so we can quite safely guess that this was a short-term job, one for earning a bit of extra spending money while still living at home with his parents.
I would suggest that to use this anecdote to explain to all living humans that if they really want a copy of Borderlands 4, they can easily find eighty bucks to spare is grotesque. It kind of makes me sick.
I’m very much a fan of Maseratis. They’re slick, awesome cars. I have, on occasion, gone to dealerships just to look at them. I also am not in a position to buy one, for any number of reasons. But Maserati doesn’t look me in the eye and tell me if I were really a fan of their products then I would find some magical way to afford them. That would be stupid, as it is when Pritchard says it about his video game. And, as Kotaku helpfully details out through income statistics among Americans, some of this seems to stem from the disconnect Pitchford has with how the average person lives.
Hopefully, this context suggests why it’s just so revolting for a man who sold his company for a potential $1.3 billion in 2021 to tell someone on X that “if you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen.” Because, you know, when he was doing a summer job at the beach in California, he somehow pulled enough cash together for that game he wanted.
There are some who think it’s a crime to be wealthy. I am very much not one of those people. I begrudge not at all Pitchford having amassed millions of dollars. I do take issue with someone with that kind of generational wealth attempting to gatekeep fandom while condescendingly telling fans if they were only true enough fans, they would find a way to give him more money.
As do those responding to his message, it seems. Here is but a sampling.
I imagine many people are now “out” as well. And if Pitchford’s company sales decline as a result and he makes less money than he would have otherwise, well, I suppose I’ll let him eat cake.
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