Borderlands 3’s gameplay reveal event couple days back was a packed one, pulling back the curtain on tons of new details on the upcoming looter shooter. Of the many, many things we learned about was the fact that Borderlands 3 (supposedly) wouldn’t have any microtransactions– with Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford saying during the event, “I’m sure we’re going to do all kinds of fun customizations like heads and skins, but we’re not doing any of that free-to-play junk. There’s not going to be any microtransactions, there’s not going to be any of that nonsense.”
The wording there was pretty clear, but conflicting reports have emerged since then, with creative director Paul Sage having confirmed to PC Gamer that though there would be no pay-to-win elements in the game, it would still feature cosmetic microtransactions, while costlier editions would also come with loot boosts and XP boosts.
That is something Sage would confirm to Game Informer as well, who went on to post an update about the same on Twitter- but Randy Pitchford was quite frustrated with how it had been worded, as you can see in his tweet below. Pitchford claimed that he was very clear in saying that though the game would have cosmetic purchases, there would be no premium currencies or loot boxes.
To be honest, saying there would be no premium currencies and also saying in the same statement, in as many words, that there would be no microtransactions didn’t really leave any doubts in anyone’s mind about what Pitchford meant- but at least it’s been made clear now.
Borderlands 3 will, however, support offline play and splitscreen co-op, and a campaign that will last at least 30 hours. More details on its endgame will also be arriving around E3 in June, so stay tuned for more updates.