Borderlands fan with stage 4 cancer says Gearbox is now flying him out to see Borderlands 4 next month: "It almost felt like a dream to be honest"

gamesradar.com:

Caleb McAlpine, a 37-year-old army veteran and Borderlands fan with stage 4 cancer, received a wave of support after asking if there might be any way for him to see Borderlands 4 early. Following outreach from developer Gearbox and CEO Randy Pitchford, McAlpine says there are now plans for him to tour the studio's Texas headquarters next month and see Borderlands 4 as it looks right now. 

Borderlands 4 is the next installment in one of McAlpine's all-time favorite series, but it won't be out until sometime in 2025. It could well be late 2025 even with no delay. McAlpine's doctors have told him he has limited time to live – roughly 7 - 12 months, and still less than two years assuming his treatment goes well. 

Speaking with GamesRadar+ over email, McAlpine explains that, when he first shared his story with the Borderlands Reddit community, he wasn't aware of the other times that Gearbox worked with fans in similar health situations. "I looked them up and saw the stories and it touched my heart even more knowing that Gearbox is such a great company to do this when they didn’t have to at all," he says. He hadn't used Reddit very much either, so the community's response, as well as Gearbox and Pitchford's offer, "floored" him. 

"I honestly did not expect it to blow up like that," McAlpine says. "I had thousands of notifications and streamers that I have watched their videos commenting on it. When I received an email from Randy I couldn’t believe it. It was awesome to see the CEO of Gearbox emailing me and telling me that he would do whatever he could to help me out. I was just floored to be honest. In a good way. I never expected anything like this. It almost felt like a dream to be honest." 

Games have "always been a passion" for McAlpine, who got into Borderlands with the first game, which launched during his time in the army. "We would actually have Borderlands parties at the house or in the barracks where we would put three or four TVs together and play that way,"