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'

A terminally ill Borderlands fan receives support from the gaming community and Gearbox after asking for an early look at Borderlands 4, with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford offering him a tour of the studio and an early gameplay experience.

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," he recalls. "It was a fun time with good people and obviously a good game." He also shared a picture of his crew's old setup:

"I have been playing the games ever since," he continues. "All of the games are good in their own way, from characters to weapons. They are just downright fun games to play." 

Terminal and severe chronic illnesses 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. I moved in with my folks on Christmas day of 2023 to help them out, and in a way help myself out as well. Seven or eight months later they were in the hospital room with me when I was being told I had cancer. There has been so much love and support shown from my family and friends, and then it has been multiplied by thousands from people that do not know me. It’s just been remarkable and overwhelming if I am being honest to say the least. 

"Cancer is no joke, the pain I have associated with my colorectal cancer that spread to my entire liver is bad enough," he adds. "But when you add chemo into the mix it’s just unbearable. There are good days, don’t get me wrong, but I have had so many bad days because of the side effects from the chemo that I legitimately have just been in bed crying from the pain. The morphine and the gabapentin that my palliative care team put me on doesn’t touch it. So for anyone that is going through cancer treatments, my heart goes out to you and to your family members that have to watch you struggle with this horrible disease." 

Games have been a valuable hobby for McAlpine throughout this process. "I have my Xbox Series X that I play at home, but for chemo days I was gifted a Switch by friends and of course the very first games I bought were the entire Borderlands series," he says. 

"Once I was able to download the games (because I live in the middle of nowhere it took two days for them to download) I immediately loaded up BL3 and got right back into the vault hunting on the Switch. I take my Switch with me to the infusion clinic and I have Borderlands geared up and ready to go. Of course BL3 is best but you still have to farm. I loaded up BL2 and started that game again this last round of chemo just so I could get going and just be a Vault Hunter in that game too."