Buying an Xbox? In This Economy?
Plus stay off the Twitters, Randy
For the second time in five months, Microsoft announced they are raising the price of their Xbox consoles. Also, Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford can’t stop tweeting, but he probably should. All this and more. Let’s go!
Microsoft raises Xbox prices…again
2025 holds the strange honor of being the year older console prices go up. PlayStation, Switch and Xbox have all raised their prices this year. Apparently these initial adjustments are not enough for the new economy. A few weeks ago we mentioned that Sony was reducing the storage space in their digital version of the PlayStation 5 from 1TB to 825GB in some parts of the world. Last week we learned that Xbox would raise prices in the U.S. for a second time this year, just five months after its last price increase, due to tariff concerns.
Microsoft is raising prices on Xbox consoles yet again in the US due to "changes in the macroeconomic environment: Series S from $379 ➡️ $399 Series X from $599 ➡️ $649 Series X Digital from $549 ➡️ $599 2TB Series X from $729 ➡️ $799 www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/...
— Shinobi602 (@shinobi602.bsky.social) 2025-09-19T19:04:14.158Z
With more players moving to PCs for gaming, it could signal a change in infrastructure in the coming years. Both Microsoft and Sony are publishing more of their games on computers, with Nintendo being the sole holdout.
Botching Borderlands
From a financial standpoint, Borderlands 4 appears to be a hit. The game reportedly sold over 2 million copies across platforms during its launch week. However, both PlayStation and PC players have noticed some issues with the game on their systems. Rather than explain how his company is working to fix these issues, Gearbox’s notoriously boisterous CEO Randy Pitchford took to Twitter to express his thoughts on his company’s game.
On the PlayStation 5, players noticed issues with the game’s performance. Pitchford took to social media and basically told players to try turning it off and on again.
Known issue of perf dropping on PS5 pro after several hours of continuous play. Workaround until we patch: Quit game and restart. Sorry for the friction!
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 16, 2025
Pitchford was not as understanding of criticisms about how the game plays on PC. When individuals spoke up on Twitter, Pitchford responded saying “Borderlands 4 is a premium game made for premium gamers.” When more players addressed their concerns, he blamed the issues on the players.
Calling players "4K stubborn" when your game struggles at 1080p on mainstream GPUs like the 3060 and 4060, cards that dominate the Steam charts... Even at MEDIUM settings, frame rates dip under 60s.
— Fallen (@Fallen1254) September 14, 2025
This is about a cel-shaded shooter looking like a DECADE-OLD game while choking…
Adding to the madness, when one player suggested that Borderlands 4 should rely less on AI upscaling, Pitchford responded with a childish response:
Code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please. We will be your customer when you pull it off. The people doing it now are clearly dumb and don’t know what they’re doing and all the support and recommendations and code and architecture from the world’s greatest hardware…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025
Finally, when another player expressed his concerns about gameplay, Pitchford made the comparison of putting a Ferrari engine in a monster truck, and told him to return the game.
You can do whatever you want. The game is the game. Please get a refund from Steam if you aren't happy with it. You made an analogy to a vehicle. I would not put a Ferrari engine in a monster truck and expect it to drive like a Ferrari. If you tell me about your specification, I…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 16, 2025
Side Quests (more stories worth reading)
🏞️ Editor's note: we are on vacation next week, and likely will not have a newsletter next Monday. Thanks for your understanding.
🏈 Axis Football 26 claims to have “the industry's best franchise mode.” We gave it a try to see if that claim holds up.
🖥️ Intel and Nvidia reached a $5 billion deal to co-develop multiple generations of chips. But don’t worry, Intel says they will still continue to make and develop their Arc graphics cards.
😠 Nintendo of America cut hundreds of jobs as they outsourced their customer service support.
🎮 Game Informer looks at all 40 games shown at the Six One Indie Showcase.
📆 Steam will end support for the 32-bit version of its Windows launcher on Jan. 1, 2026.
📊 Lenovo cancelled some preorders of its pc-based handheld the Legion Go 2, saying it substantially exceeded expectations.
🎮 GamesIndustry.biz has an in-depth look at one of the biggest video game companies in the world, Tencent.
🏛️ In the wake of the Charlie Kirk shooting, the CEOs of Steam, Discord, Twitch and Reddit were called to appear before Congress to make sure their platforms are not being “exploited for nefarious purposes.”
👩🏽🔬 Scientists have researched why some players invert their controls.
♻️ A new report shows that 90% of players have played a remade or remastered game in the past 12 months.
🎮 Microsoft is making some changes on how the Xbox controller works with Windows 11.
📈 Round numbers: Shape of Dreams sold 300,000 copies its first week, Silksong sold more than 3.2 million copies on Steam alone and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 4.4 million copies.
New Releases this week:
Check out our article on 12 New Games to Play in September.
9/22: Endless Legend 2 (PC)
9/23: Baby Steps (PlayStation and PC)
9/25: Silent Hill f (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
9/25: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
9/26: EA Sports FC 26 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
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