Gearbox Flew Terminally-Ill Fan to Its Studio to Play Borderlands 4 Early — “I Am Praying He Makes to When We Are Done”

A terminally-ill Borderlands fan recently visited developer Gearbox to play Borderlands 4 early after his story went viral.

In October, 37-year-old Caleb McAlpine took to the Borderlands 3 subreddit to reveal his late stage four terminal cancer diagnosis after being given seven to 12 months left to live, or less than two years if chemotherapy slows the progression of the cancer.

“So I am a die hard Borderlands fan and don’t know if I will be around for Borderlands 4,” McAlpine said. “Is there anyone that knows how to get in touch with Gearbox to see if there is a way to play the game early?

“Long shot but thought I would try.

“Thanks for your help.”

After McAlpine’s post went viral with over 19,000 upvotes on Reddit alone, Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford chimed in to say the studio would do everything it could “to make something happen.” Thankfully, last week McAlpine was able to visit Gearbox’s Texas headquarters to play Borderlands 4.

“Caleb is cool – a legit gamer who knows Borderlands inside and out,” Pitchford tweeted. “I’m glad he got a chance to play. I am praying he makes to when we are done. Thanks, internet, for signal boosting Caleb’s story.”

“We’re deeply thankful to the Borderlands community for rallying around Caleb after he shared his story several weeks ago,” Gearbox added. “His courage, strength, and determination are an inspiration to us all. Our team was honored to host him last week at our studio.”

McAlpine himself returned to the Borderlands 3 subreddit to post pictures of his Gearbox visit and reveal what had happened.

“So Gearbox flew me and a friend down 1st class the 20th of this month and we got to tour the studio and meet an amazing bunch of people from some of the devs of all of the Borderlands games up to Randy the CEO,” McAlpine posted.

“We got to play what they have for Borderlands 4 so far and it was amazing. I don’t know if I will be around when the game comes out but I just want to say thank you to all of you for all of your love and support and for helping in making this happen. It truly was an amazing experience and it was just awesome.

“We stayed at the Omni at the Star (the Dallas Cowboys headquarters) and the hotel wanted to do something nice as well and got us in on a VIP tour of the entire facility. Needless to say me being a Lions fan I got to talk a lot of smack lol.

“Thank you everyone.”

Borderlands 4 is due out at some point in 2025.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].