Gearbox will fly fan with terminal illness to see Borderlands 4 early—says he's been 'floored' by the kindness, donations, and the gamers who helped him get in touch
Gearbox Software, the studio behind the FPS looter shooter series Borderlands, will be flying a terminally ill fan, Caleb McAlpine, out to see Borderlands 4 ahead of schedule next month, after his wish to do so was spread across social media.
McAlpine asked the game's subreddit last week if anyone there knew how to get in touch with Gearbox, revealing that he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 terminal cancer, and that the doctors had given him approximately seven to twelve months to live.
«I am a die hard Borderlands fan and don’t know if I will be around for Borderlands 4,» McAlpine wrote. «Is there anyone that knows how to get in touch with Gearbox to see if there is a way to play the game early?» Co-founder of the studio, Randy Pitchford, promised on X that they'll look into «making something happen».
McAlpine then spoke to GamesRadar and confirmed that, yes, Gearbox would absolutely be flying him out to see a work-in-progress build.
«I honestly did not expect it to blow up like that,» McAlpine writes to the site via email: «I had thousands of notifications and streamers [whose videos I've watched] 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.»
The 37-year-old veteran also told the site about where his enjoyment of the series started—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 … I have been playing the games ever since. All of the games are good in their own way, from characters to weapons. They are just downright fun games to play.»
The full interview itself is a heart wrenching read. McAlpine explains that he'd been «expecting to grow old and hopefully have a family of
Read more on pcgamer.com
