by Caleb McAlpine, a 37-year-old Army veteran and Borderlands fan with stage 4 cancer, received a wave of support after asking if there’s any way he can see Borderlands 4 sooner. After contact from developer Gearbox and CEO Randy Pitchford, McAlpine says there are now plans to visit the studio’s headquarters in Texas next month and see Borderlands 4 as it stands now.
Border countries 4 is the next installment in one of McAlpine’s all-time favorite series, but it won’t be released until sometime in 2025. It could very well be late 2025, even without delay. McAlpine doctors have told him he has a limited time to live – about seven to 12 months, and still less than two years, assuming his treatment goes well.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ via email, McAlpine explains that when he first shared his story with the Borderlands Reddit community, he was unaware of the other times Gearbox has 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 much either, so the community’s response, as well as the offers from Gearbox and Pitchford, “redeemed” him.
“I honestly didn’t expect it to blow up like this,” McAlpine says. “I’ve had thousands of notifications and streamers saying I watched and commented on their videos. When I received an email from Randy, I couldn’t believe it. It was amazing to see the CEO of Gearbox email me and told me he would do whatever he could to help me, I was just floored to be honest. In a good way I never expected anything like this.
Games have “always been a passion” for McAlpine, who entered Borderlands with the first game, which launched during his time in the military. “We actually had Borderlands parties at our house or in the barracks, where we would put three or four TVs together and play like that,” he recalls. “It was a good time with good people and obviously a good match.” He also shared a photo of his crew’s old setup:
“I’ve been playing the games ever since,” he continues. “All the games are good in their own way, from characters to weapons. They’re just downright fun games to play.”
Terminal and serious chronic illness are full-time jobs that don’t offer days off, and McAlpine says his diagnosis and treatment have been extremely difficult. “I was living my best life expecting to grow old and hopefully have a family of my own one day. On Christmas Day 2023, I moved in with my parents to help them, and in a way, myself. Seven or eight months later they were with me in the hospital room when I was told I had cancer. There has been so much love and support shown by my family and friends, and then it has been multiplied by thousands from people who don’t know me. It has been just remarkable and overwhelming, like me I’m honest, to say the least.
“Cancer is no joke, the pain I have associated with my colorectal cancer and which has spread to my entire liver is bad enough,” he adds. “But when you add chemo to the mix, it’s just unbearable. There are good days, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve had so many bad days because of the side effects of the chemo that I’ve legitimately laid in bed crying in pain .The morphine and gabapentin that my palliative care team prescribed do not matter. So to anyone undergoing cancer treatment, my heart goes out to you and to your family members who have to watch you struggle with this terrible disease.”
Games have been a valuable hobby for McAlpine throughout this process. “I have my Xbox Series
“Once I was able to download the games (because I live in the middle of nowhere it took two days to download), I immediately loaded BL3 and immediately went back into the vault looking for the Switch. I’ll take took my Switch to the infusion clinic and got Borderlands prepped and ready to go. Of course BL3 is the best, but you still have to farm. I loaded up BL2 and started that game again during the last chemo treatment so I could get started And just could be a Vault Hunter in that game too.”
