Borderlands 4 might have been inadvertently announced by Randy Pitchford, CEO of developerGearbox Software, in a strange post to social media.
The series is renowned for its writing and for its moreish mechanics which unlocked a nigh-unlimited pool of loot for its players, but for me, it was the characters and world that drew me to the planet of Pandora. In Borderlands, I chose Mordecai, the sharpshooter, not for his skillset per se but for his pet raptor named Bloodwing. To this day, I credit her for saving my skin in some of the nail-biting boss battles in the game. My boyfriend and I are playing Borderlands 2 together as a chill co-op game, and I can't recommend the episodic narrative Tales From The Borderlands enough, even if this would be your first step into the series. The latest game, Borderlands 3, launched two years ago but continued to receive highly popular updates and content packs like Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot and Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck.
Though Borderlands' sense of humour is crass at the best of times, you can't deny it's got a wonderful visual style. Modder Salmonella123 actually took this cell-shaded approach to Cyberpunk 2077, and the results are really something.
Advert
Three is a magic number, but it appears as though Gearbox Software is shooting for the stars when it comes to the future of the looter-shooter series. There was speculation that there is a new Borderlands game on the way and it would be a spinoff from a separate studio that would bring Gearbox Software employees on board as support for its work. "These rumors are NOT accurate," stated Pitchford in a Tweet. "Gearbox is lead dev of any future games in the Borderlands franchise (or any Borderlands adjacent games) with no co-development." He then went on to say that Gearbox Software is in the middle of creating "amazing stuff that, I hope, will surprise and delight you."
Linking to the careers page on their official website, he continued: "if anyone out there has Skills-To-Pay-Bills and wants to get in on some Borderlands action, we're working on the big one :)" Kotaku noted that this is the same wording that Pitchford used in reference to development on Borderlands 3 six years ago. Ergo, one of two things is possible.
The first is that Borderlands 4 is in the very early stages and the studio needs helping hands to take these ideas into reality. The second is that Pitchford likes using "the big one" to mean significantly sized games from Gearbox Software, and it's not necessarily the next entry in the Borderlands series. In any event, it's evident that things are moving and shaking for the company, and we'll keep an eye out for further announcements.
Featured Image Credit: GearboxTopics: News, Borderlands