Randy Pitchford has promised that cross-save and cross-progression is coming to Borderlands 4.
He made this promise in Gearbox’s official PAX AU presentation.
Pitchford Makes His Pitch
Pitchford talks about the studio’s past with Borderlands and making cross-play possible.
He said this:
Um, another thing that that you know, some of us are lucky and insanely passionate about gaming, and we have multiple platforms.
I’m fortunate enough where I have a system where I can play on my couch on a console and I can also play on my desktop. And I also have portable systems that I can take with me as I travel.
And Borderlands has committed to co-op gameplay and to cross-play. And of course we launched with cross-play in Borderlands 4 because it’s really awesome when people can play together even when they’re not on the same platform.
Pitchford’s Promise
Pitchford then went ahead with the big commitment:
But we’ve never supported cross-save where I can take my progress that I’ve made on my PC and then bring it to the to my console game or even if I if I’m having a portable system. And guys, we’re bringing cross-save to Borderlands. Yes. And it’s really exciting to be able to do it.
How Big A Deal Will Cross-Save And Cross-Progression Be For Borderlands 4?
This will definitely be a nice bonus for gamers who have multiple platforms. We do know most gamers have a gaming PC and at least one console. Based on the stats, that’s most likely to be a PlayStation 5 or a Nintendo Switch.
So we can imagine most gamers who will take advantage of this will have a PlayStation 5 and a PC. But we can’t disregard that gamers who also have an Xbox Series X|S will enjoy switching their game around between these platforms.
What About Gaming Handhelds?
When Borderlands 4 launched, it had performance issues across the board. We doubt that that will change for the Steam Deck, given the age of that platform’s CPU.
There’s some reason to hope that Gearbox could make it work on Ryzen Z2-based PC gaming handhelds. That includes the ROG Xbox Ally X, the Lenovo Legion GO 2, and the SteamOS powered Legion GO S.
But the real big hope will be Nintendo’s Switch 2. Nvidia’s bespoke CPU may or may not be as powerful as the Z2 Extreme. We can argue about specific performance metrics here and there.
However, we know that Nintendo’s new console already outsold the entire PC gaming handheld’s entire market share. Gearbox is not the only developer hoping that Nintendo’s new platform will be just as profitable for them as it is for Nintendo.
So we can reasonably expect that Gearbox will prioritize and put in the extra work to make the Switch 2 version the best it can be. This announcement suggests they delayed Borderlands 4 on Switch 2 to make sure it will be ready by the time they launch it on Nintendo’s platform.
We could be playing Borderlands 4 between Switch 2, PC, and a home console in the near future.
