It puts the new playable Vault Hunter C4SH front and center, and he’s quite compelling with his confident swagger and slick moves in the field. We’re especially interested in his deft use of throwing cards and melee capabilities aside from the use of some brand new weapons. They’ll be essential against some of the new nasty-looking bosses.

That takes care of the new part, but the old part of things is equally interesting, as Mad Ellie is making her comeback alongside Crazy Earl and a few other familiar faces. We’re hoping that the missions are as insane as they seem (pun intended) with the two of them on board. C4SH looks like he’s going to fit right into their dynamic, which is always good news for any story that counts on some fun banter between its main actors.

The expansion is out now for the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and is a great opportunity to test out those improved frame rates on your PCs. The trailer is below if you want to check it out before you dive in.

“Our primary objective is to strike the balance between making sure players can notice the frame rate improvements we’re making without disrupting their experience,” wrote the studio. Its efforts in this department have resulted in improved average frame rates by about 20 percent across systems running on a variety of hardware, ranging from minimum to recommended specifications.

In a series of bar graphs comparing frame rates across different PC setups between the launch version of Borderlands 4 and its 1.5 version from this month, the company has shown off how many improvements were made. On minimum specs with visuals upscaled to 1080p, it was capable of 53.1 FPS at launch, compared to 67.02 FPS now. Recommended PC specs upscaled to 1440p visuals could run at 64.02 FPS at launch and 75.72 FPS now. High-end hardware, like a PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080, could run the game at 86.87 FPS at launch, compared to the current 107.07 FPS.

For native resolutions, the minimum specs could manage 37.32 FPS at launch, while Borderlands 4 version 1.5 is now capable of running at 52.79 FPS. Recommended specs went from delivering 44.89 FPS to 56.54 FPS, and a PC running it on an RTX 4080 jumped from 54.96 FPS to 78.43 FPS.

“The roughly 20% increase in average FPS comes from combined efforts focusing on GPU, CPU, and general efficiency, with the Optimization Team identifying specific refinements to improve performance without being too noticeable in terms of visual fidelity,” wrote the company. These refinements were made to Shader PSOs (Pipeline State Objects), how GPU drivers identified randomized gun parts, and HLOD (Hierarchical Level of Detail), that manages how distant parts of the map are rendered.

There were also many tweaks to smaller aspects of Borderlands 4’s visuals to help boost frame rate, like trimming the polygon count for effects like thruster exhausts, particle effects for Action Skills, and Airship drop world events, among others. CPU strain was reduced thanks to refinements made to damage effects for the Cryo element, collision physics, and cloth simulation. Similarly, the team utilized Unreal Engine 5’s Virtual Shadow Maps technology to improve lighting effects throughout the game while reducing the GPU’s load.

“We’re proud of the work the team’s done to improve Borderlands 4‘s PC performance since launch, and we also recognize we have more to do,” wrote the studio. “We’re in it for the long haul!”

“We are doing all of this without removing the ability that players have had, and will continue to have, to self-tune their experiences to fit their playstyle preferences using the in-game graphics options and graphics card-based drivers and tools.”

Borderlands 4 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. While a Nintendo Switch 2 release was originally planned, it eventually faced a delay. A report from last month then revealed that Gearbox Entertainment had decided to pause development of the port.

The story sees the Vault Hunter working with Ellie as they venture into The Whispering Glacier in search of an “alien monolith” to find the titular Vault of the Damned. A “cosmic entity” that wants to ruin Kairos is apparently within, and the duo are keen to prevent that. Alongside the return of Mancubus, there’s Pickle and even Crazy Earl.

The Whispering Glacier holds plenty of secrets, including new areas hidden by massive flesh grows and an alternate dimension where a random World Boss awaits. Aside from the various bosses and mini-bosses (which include Scavs, Kraggons and even the DAHL Legion), players can look forward to 11 new Legendaries and three Pearlescent weapons. There are also 28 new cosmetics to unlock.

Of course, to access the content, you’ll need to have finished “A Lot to Process” in the base game, which means being level 13 or higher, or starting a new character and skipping straight to the DLC. A full reveal of C4SH’s gameplay and even a new cinematic short will be released next week, so there’s plenty to help with the wait.

Borderlands 4 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Its Switch 2 version was originally in development, but has since been paused, allegedly proving a challenge for the team.

For starters, there’s a whole new level of rare gear just waiting for you to find it. Pearlescent Gear comes with the benefit of having two elemental damage types on it, with enemy resistances and weaknesses causing your gear to automatically default to what will cause the most damage. Although you’re going to have to do a bit of farming to get them to drop, they’re well worth the effort when playing on harder difficulties.

As for the new missions, you’re going to be assisting Defiant Calder quell the influence of a malevolent presence in the mountains that the Augers have been appeasing with human sacrifices. Calder has decided that enough is enough and is going to join the Vault Hunters in eliminating it. Aside from new Ordonite-encrusted enemies and bosses, there’s a new Vault Card with a lot of cosmetic unlockables and some excellent rewards for finishing the main story missions.

Of course, there’s plenty more to come, including the first paid expansion, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned. It’s out next month and adds a new playable Vault Hunter, C4SH.

The post is a the latest iteration of the Xbox Excellence Awards, which was created last year to celebrate how players engaged with various releases on Xbox. The Store Rating category lists 2025 games with the best ratings on the Microsoft Store, with an added requirement of the title having at least 500 ratings. Player Engagements is about the average number of hours spent on a game by each player within the first six weeks of a game’s release. Daily Active Users celebrates titles, expansions or updates with the highest single-day active users throughout the year. And finally Units Sold is fairly self-explanatory.

Going down the lists, you’ll find many of the biggest releases of the year, from ARC Raiders and Battlefield 6, as well as award-winning RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Indie titles have also been well-represented, with games like Crime Scene Cleaner and Satisfactory making it into the lists. There also doesn’t seem to have been a singular genre to dominate the lists, since everything from sports games like EA Sports Madden NFL 26, to fantasy adventure life sims like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and even fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics are well represented.

Curiously, none of the games was present in all four of the categories. At most, we got to see titles like Borderlands 4 being able to make it on to three of them: Player Engagement, Daily Active Users and Units Sold. Even ARC Raiders, which has seen quite a bit of success, is only on the Units Sold and Daily Active Users lists.

Microsoft has also emphasized that the lists represent a diverse collection of games developed by studios of varying sizes. All in all, it represents 48 unique developers based out of 13 countries, with 24 publishers having had a hand in their release. 19 of the games were self-published. “Taken as a whole, it’s an encapsulation of development on Xbox – we want gaming to reach you wherever you are, and for the teams making those games to find you from wherever they are,” wrote the company.

Full list of games:

Store Rating:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
• Crime Scene Cleaner
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dreamcore
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Lies of P: Overture
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• Little Nightmares III
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics
• Minami Lane
• Mullet MadJack
• Poppy Playtime Chapter 4
• Satisfactory
• Silent Hill 2
• Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Player Engagement:

• Borderlands 4
• Digimon Story: Time Stranger
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
• Farm Together 2
• Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
• Helldivers 2
• Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• NHL 26
• Rust
• Satisfactory
• The First Berserker: Khazan

Daily Active Users:

• Arc Raiders
• Avowed
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• DOOM: The Dark Ages
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Fortnite
• Forza Horizon 5
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grounded 2
• Helldivers 2
• Marvel Rivals
• Minecraft
• NBA 2K26
• Rematch
• Roblox
• Rocket League
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege

Units Sold:

• Arc Raiders
• Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Battlefield 6
• Borderlands 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• EA Sports Madden NFL 26
• EA Sports College Football 26
• EA Sports FC 26
• Elden Ring Nightreign
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Helldivers 2
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
• MLB The Show 25
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• NBA 2K26
• PGA Tour 2K25
• Ready or Not
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
• WWE 2K25

Bounty Pack 2’s release later this month will be accompanied by a major update for Borderlands 4 that brings with it a new tier of loot rarity—Pearlescent. This new tier has been described as being “superior to even Legendary gear”, and will be available to all players regardless of which DLC they may or may not own. Bounty Pack 2 players will also get their own exclusive Pearlescent-tier gear.

Story Pack 1 will introduce an entirely new region to the game, complete with new story missions and the first post-launch Vault Hunter addition—C4SH. The character was teased back in September, giving us hints about his various abilities. C4SH is themed as a gunslinger, along with slight nods towards potential necromantic abilities. The tease was accompanied with a look at C4SH’s kit, which includes a pair of revolvers and some strange-looking artefacts.

Legend of the Stone Demon is the second of five planned post-launch Bounty Pack DLCs. It can be picked up as part of the Bounty Pack Bundle, or as part of the Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions of Borderlands 4. Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned, on the other hand, is the first of two planned Story Pack DLCs, and can be picked up individually, as part of the Vault Hunter Pack, or as part of the game’s Super Deluxe Edition.

Initially, Gearbox had also planned to bring Borderlands 4 to the Nintendo Switch 2. However, poor performance of the title on PC led to the studio pushing back the Switch 2 launch in favor of ironing out its technical issues on other platforms. While things had largely been quiet since then, earlier this week, Take-Two Interactive spokesperson Alan Lewis had confirmed that development on the port had been paused.

“Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game,” said Lewis. “We’re continuing to collaborate closely with our friends at Nintendo. We have ‘PGA Tour 2K25’ coming out and ‘WWE 2K26’ [for Switch 2], and we’re incredibly excited about bringing more of our titles to that platform in the future”

A follow-up report has indicated that development on the Switch 2 port had been “paused for a couple of months.” According to notable leaker NateTheHate, the port has “proven to be a challenge and has likely crossed over into the realm of investment/time needed to port it well being too high in comparison to sales potential.”

In the meantime, Borderlands 4 is still available on other modern platforms, and Gearbox has recently unveiled an updated roadmap for its post-launch content plans. Also check out our review for more details on the co-op looter shooter.

Although there was speculation about a February 2026 release, leaker NateTheHate revealed on ResetEra that the Switch 2 version had been “paused for a couple of months now. It’s proven to be a challenge and has likely crossed over into the realm of investment/time needed to port it well being too high in comparison to sales potential.” Take-Two previously announced that launch sales were “a little softer” than it would have liked, even though it reaffirmed Gearbox’s support for the title.

It’s rather unfortunate that Switch 2 players may not get to experience what, in our opinion, was a solid addition to a franchise that has managed to stay relevant over the years with its unique brand of satirical humor and excellent mechanics backing a riveting story. However, it does make sense to hold off on a port that may not live up to the high expectations of its players.

Time will tell if Borderlands 4 can manage to find its way to the Switch 2, but for now, it does seem like a bleak prospect. On the bright side, other platforms can look forward to plenty of free updates and paid content, including the first story expansion, Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned.

With the news that the Nintendo Switch 2 version has been paused, one must wonder about its future (the recent 2026 roadmap notwithstanding). Speaking to GamesIndustry, Zelnick said, “We’re still supporting Borderlands. We’ll have new content coming, we have updates coming, and we still are very optimistic about that title.”

This follows president Karl Slatoff stating that, “Gearbox Software will continue to support Borderlands 4 with new content and updates, and we expect the title to achieve strong sell-through over its lifetime” in Take-Two’s latest earnings call (transcription via GamesRadar).

That’s pretty much in line with everything we already know, but what about long-term content plans? Will Gearbox deliver everything on its current roadmap, which includes a new Bounty Pack and two story expansions, before moving on? Or can we expect even more content beyond Q3 2026?

Time will tell, but for Standard Edition owners along for the ride, the looter shooter will receive new Pearlescent rarity items next month, followed by a new Invincible boss and the first Takedown in Q2 2026. Gearbox has also promised performance improvements, a level cap increase, balance updates, new endgame activities, limited-time events, and my most-wanted feature, Shared Progression.

It essentially means that all collectibles unlocked on your first playthrough, including Fast Travel kiosks, Vault Key Fragments, and more, will be available for all future characters. No more needing to hunt them down again. Unfortunately, there’s currently no ETA on its arrival.

Lewis did mention, however, that Take-Two Interactive is still continuing to work with Nintendo to bring its games to the Switch 2, including upcoming releases like WWE 2K26.

“Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game. We’re continuing to collaborate closely with our friends at Nintendo. We have ‘PGA Tour 2K25’ coming out and ‘WWE 2K26’ [for Switch 2], and we’re incredibly excited about bringing more of our titles to that platform in the future.”

What he means by the development being paused is currently unknown. It might be an outright cancellation for the platform, since the recent quarterly earnings report for Take-Two Interactive doesn’t have any mention of Borderlands 4’s Switch 2 release.

Another report had indicated that Gearbox and Take-Two Interactive might be aiming for a February 27 launch of the Switch 2 port of Borderlands 4, with the alleged date being listed by a Portuguese retailer. The description of the physical release indicated that it would be a Game Key Card, which would require players to download the files to play.

Gearbox had announced that it was delaying the Switch 2 port of Borderlands 4 back in September, noting that it was making sure that it could deliver “the best possible experience to our fans.” Along with optimization improvements, the studio was also working on features like cross saves. “We do not take this decision lightly, but are committed to ensuring we deliver the best possible experience to our fans, and the game needs additional development and polish time to do that,” said Gearbox through the Borderlands Twitter account.

Thankfully, Nintendo’s eShop policies have meant that those who pre-ordered Borderlands 4 on the Switch 2 wouldn’t lose any money. Rather, all digital pre-orders were cancelled, and refunds were automatically initiated. It is worth noting that some work had been done on Borderlands 4‘s Switch 2 port, with a trailer being released back in July showcasing the platform-specific gameplay.

Borderlands 4 is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, and Gearbox has continued to provide post-launch support for the co-op looter shooter. In a new roadmap, the studio confirmed that Bounty Pack 2: Legend of the Stone Demon will be released in February, and Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned will come out in March.

The second Invincible boss is also slated to debut alongside the game’s first Takedown in Q2 2026. Gearbox has described it as an “extremely challenging gauntlet where players will have to battle their way through a new area, taking on hordes of enemies and new boss encounters.”

For more on Borderlands 4, check out our review.

The former is notable because it marks the arrival of Pearlescent rarity gear. Even if you don’t own the DLC, you can still earn Pearlescent items. Some loot is exclusive for those who pay up, naturally, but if you prefer to check out the first Story Pack, it brings the first new playable Vault Hunter – C4SH. There’s also a new story as players explore a new region with “multiple main missions and side missions, new gear to earn, and a bunch of new cosmetics.”

In Q2 2026, the looter shooter’s second Invincible boss will debut alongside the game’s first Takedown, described as an “extremely challenging gauntlet where players will have to battle their way through a new area, taking on hordes of enemies and new boss encounters.” Succeed and say hello to the very best loot.

Gearbox is also working on “additional endgame activities” to bring a “new layer of challenge and mastery to existing content.” If that wasn’t enough, a level cap increase, cross-platform saves, shared progression – where collectibles, Fast Travel points, Vault Fragments, and more will be unlocked on all future characters – and other limited-time free events.

Borderlands 4 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, but the Nintendo Switch 2 version has yet to receive a release date. A Portuguese retailer recently listed it for February 27th, so perhaps an announcement at next week’s rumored Nintendo Direct? Stay tuned for updates in the meantime.