Pitchford’s post comes in response to an earlier one he made about the average play time for Borderlands players across Borderlands 2 and 3. According to his figures, the average play time for Borderlands 2 was around 13 hours and 42 minutes, with more than 87 percent of all players having played the title for more than an hour. Borderlands 3, on the other hand, came in around 18 hours and 48 minutes of average play time, with 92 percent of all players having played it for more than an hour.

“So what is meaningful here is that BL3 seems to engender a meaningful degree more average playtime than BL2,” wrote Pitchford. “Earlier, the folks responding to a poll seemed to believe that actual play time is a better correlation to quality than user reviews.”

Pitchford then went on to dissect why more players might have spent more time with Borderlands 3 over its predecessor, noting that it might come down to the fact that the more recent entry in the franchise was an improvement over Borderlands 2. He does note, however, that these numbers essentially came about through an informal poll he ran on social media.

“So it suggests that BL3 is ‘better’ than BL2 by the standard the people who responded to my poll have favored. Obviously individual tastes vary and entertainment is subjective,” he explained. “We are all edge cases. I tend to be in line with the crowd for most things, but I sometimes love some things others do not and I sometimes don’t prefer things others love. This is why we still have artists and entertainers – we’re all different and we’re all changing our tastes over time.”

Ultimately, Pitchford notes that Borderlands 4 is also turning out to be an improvement over the previous game, noting that these improvements have led Gearbox as a whole to be quite excited about its release.

“In any case, by any standard we’ve thrown at it, we are confident that BL4 is turning out to be better than BL3 by every measurement we have, including subjective ones, so that makes us very excited about the launch,” he wrote.

Borderlands 4 is slated for release on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on September 12. So far, however, the studio is yet to confirm how much the game will cost. In a social media post earlier this month, Pitchford said that publisher 2K will be announcing the price for Borderlands 4 “soon”.

“Boy howdy, JackGPT, is that how I sound? My bad, but cheers to Duke_Newcombe and @MoxsyOG for the funniest thing I’m going to read today,” posted Pitchford, responding to a post reiterating his previous post in the voice of Handsome Jack.

“In seriousness though, nobody likes being taken for granted and it was not my intent,” his post continues. “I’m humbled by the love and support everyone has shown the team as we push hard to get this amazing game in your hands. They’re crushing it, and I can’t wait for everyone to play what’s going to be the best Borderlands ever! Regardless of where the price lands, it’s going to be worth it and then some. Back to work for me!”

The whole saga came about because Pitchford, responding to a Borderlands fan on X, said that the price of the game wasn’t his call. In his earlier post, Pitchford then went on to talk about having to save up money from a minimum wage job in order to buy an $80 copy of Starfighter for the Sega Genesis back in 1991.

“If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” he posted. “My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.”

As one might expect, the post by Pitchford wasn’t received well by Borderlands fans at all. Several of them responded to him; while some mocked his attempts at gatekeeping the concept of being a fan of the franchise on the basis of how much disposable income one might have, others also pointed out that several places all over the world have been going through economic troubles.

Borderlands 4 is currently under development for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is slated for release on September 12. In a recent Creator’s Voice video about the Switch 2 version of Borderlands 4, Gearbox’s chief creative officer Randy Varnell revealed that the title had been in development for six years. According to Varnell, right after the release of Borderlands 3, the studio started to work on “filling up Borderlands with great adventure.”

While you wait for the release of the next title in the co-op looter shooter franchise, you can also check out a gameplay trailer released earlier this month that gave us a look at the various traversal methods that will be available in the game, as well as hints at what its story might entail.

He also goes on to say that real fans of the Borderlands franchise would figure out a buy it anyway, regardless of how much the game would be priced at. To hammer his point further, Pitchford also brings up Sega Genesis title Starflight being priced at $80 back in 1991, with him having to save up money from a minimum wage job to get his hands on the game.

“If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” posted Pitchford. “My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.”

This post by Pitchford hasn’t been received kindly in its replies. Several fans of Borderlands have responded to this by making fun of Pitchford’s attempt to gatekeep being a fan of the franchise based on how much disposal income a person might have. Others have also pointed out that quite a few places all over the world are going through economic troubles, which makes spending money on an $80 title even less feasible.

Earlier this month during a panel at PAX East, Pitchford also spoke about Borderlands 4, referring to its world as “by far the biggest universe that we’ve built.” He also said that exploration in the in-game setting of Kairos will be “seamless”, saying that “there’s no load times.”

“You see something anywhere on the screen, a mile away, up in the sky, you will be able to get there,” he said, explaining that things on the horizon aren’t just flat assets for the sake of decorating a skybox. Rather, players will be able to visit those far-off places they can see, and will maybe even end up finding something cool.

Pitchford has also revealed why Borderlands 4 won’t include a minimap. The decision was made to give players just a compass instead in order to emphasise exploration and navigation in a world that will be larger than we’ve seen in previous games in the franchise.

“A lot of the things you do can be local space, but a lot of the things you do or want to do are out there, and a local space map is not a good way to navigate when you’re thinking about objectives and opportunities – several at the same time that might be miles away – and a compass really helps us do that,” said Pitchford.

Gearbox Software’s Battleborn is only a few months away but it’s still a bit shrouded in mystery. We don’t know when the beta will arrive or many details about the extent of the campaign. However, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told Polygon that in terms of resources, the studio has a lot invested in this “big bet” it calls Battleborn.

“We’ve invested more than Borderlands 1 and 2 added together into Battleborn. And we don’t even know if people will be interested or not.”

When games like Overwatch and LawBreakers emerged, it was a sign for Gearbox. “When other people started showing up with things that touched on it, it actually motivated us. First, there’s some competition, which is a fun challenge. But also, wow, those guys are really smart, too and they think there’s something here. Maybe we’re not crazy after all; maybe there’s a customer for this game.

“It’s challenging, too, because no one is doing quite what we’re doing. Most people are using a free-to-play angle or some other stuff. But we make AAA – you spend your money and you know you’ve got a full product and a valuable product and you’ve got a full experience there.”

Again though, despite claiming Battleborn has a “big, robust campaign” there are still things we don’t know. Will everything become clearer as Battleborn approaches its release date of May 3rd? Stay tuned to find out.

Gearbox, and especially Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford, has come under a lot of fire in recent years, due to shipping some broken games, some obnoxious comments made from the top, and some outright misleading and lying to the customer. However, it appears as though Pitchford is largely unruffled by all the criticism hurled at him or the company. Speaking at the Develop conference, he addressed the question of criticism from the gaming community.

“There is always the person who’s got to stand on the sandcastle, they must crush it,” he said. “That’s their way of relating to that. It’s typically a less sophisticated mind. There’s a dark part of us all that likes the idea of crushing a sandcastle, but most of us will respect it and let it be. That’s why we like playing video games where we can blow stuff up and no one gets hurt.”

“If you’re making entertainment on a grand scale, if you’re reaching millions, there will be tens of thousands of people who absolutely hate us, and some percentage of those will take it upon themselves to let us known how they feel,” he said.

“I read it in this way: we moved those people, we touched them – even the person who hates [your game] so much, you’ve affected them. That’s why we fight, we’re creating emotion and experience – and some people thrive on that type of feeling, some people are sadists.”

I mean… I guess I am glad he isn’t letting it get to him, but yikes. Man must live in a bubble or something.

Though Borderlands 3 hasn’t been confirmed, with Gearbox Software working on Battleborn for next gen consoles and 2K Australia developing the inter-quel-esque Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told Game Informer that discussions do go on about Borderlands 3.

“There’s a point where it’s like, ‘What should the next Borderlands be? Should there be another Borderlands, and what should it be?’

“We had that discussion and there was this weird mixed bag. On one level it’s like, ‘Woah’. If you’re going to do something that’s called Borderlands 3 and it’s going to be done in this next-generation environment, there’s a whole bunch of ideas that come around of what has to happen in order for that to live up to what that needs to be.

“We imagine what that might be, and frankly it scared us. It’s like, ‘That’s so crazy and so big that I’m not sure we can succeed’.”

Again, this doesn’t mean Borderlands 3 exists, but Gearbox’s views on the matter show that they want to go above and beyond anything created till now. Will they succeed? We’ll find out in the coming days.

While rumours have been running rampant as to Gearbox Software’s next few projects, including the chances of Borderlands 3 arriving. However, studio president Randy Pitchford has clarified to Polygon, “I’m not going to f**k around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3.

“Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don’t know what it is yet. But we are doing things in Borderlands that we’ll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise.”

Gearbox is currently planning to release the original Homeworld games, remade with new graphics, along with Furious Four, the next Brothers in Arms and two new games which will be new IP. “We invested a lot to remaster the original Homeworld and Homeworld 2. We’ll be releasing them on digital platforms in fully remastered – not just ported to work, but fully remastered. If you have a new crazy-ass Nvidia 780TI or an Nvidia Titan and you happen to have one of those $3,000 4K monitors, you’re going to see an unbelievable image.”

But no one can deny that Borderlands 3 would be top. We’d gladly take so many new and interesting projects if they have the potential to be as awesome as the loot-based shooter though.R Do you agree? Let us know below.

Since it was a new character, like Gaige, and Gearbox was already working on raising the level cap for the game – along with news that it was taking longer than expected due to the amount of work to be done – many started to suspect that maybe the sixth Vault Hunter would be included with the level cap raise update.

CEO Randy Pitchford recently clarified this, when a fan asked if the new character would be a standalone update like Gaige. Pitchford simply responded with “Yes”.

@saintofownage yes

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) March 10, 2013

So while we’re not sure when we’ll see the new character or the level cap raise update, we at least know that they’re two separate entities. Which now makes two DLC pieces that Gearbox has unreleased rather than one.

Source: Examiner

Ever since videos have been circulating showing the difference between gameplay showcased a year ago versus the final product, the criticism has become even more vitriolic. In response to a recent tweet implying he was lying about presentations for Colonial Marines, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford replied with the following:

Head here to find out what actually happened with the development of Aliens: Colonial Marines.

The whole story is fairly complex but the basic gist is that due to being in active development in the past, but relegated to the side for other projects, Aliens: Colonial Marines would be overhauled significantly each time development was resumed.

This time around, Gearbox couldn’t get an extension from Sega without getting sued which resulted in a shabby product.

Source: PixelSmashers

Regarding new classes via DLC, Pitchford simply replied, “Yes – we’re working on it.” He also confirmed max level increases for the characters, but when it came to increase backpack and bank slots, he stated, “That’s being talked about. Not as simple as it sounds.”

While this may just be another day for Pitchford, responding to fan questions, it spells good news for Borderlands 2. The game is already massive enough on its own, and will support a good range of updates for the months to come.

Oh, and also check out Pitchford’s account to see Spoony Experiment’s Noah Antwiller making an ass of himself (as usual).

Source: Examiner