As we’ve covered here on the site before, franchises that continue on for a long time have a need to grow and evolve so that they don’t become stagnant. To be clear, they need to often stick to the “core values” that made them special in the first place, but there are plenty of ways to grow beyond what came before so that things stay fresh. Borderlands 4 may not be the best game ever due to its technical woes, but most agree that it did embrace the notion of “shaking things up” to keep fans entertained, and no one is more certain of that than Randy Pitchford.
He was at the Tokyo Game Show talking with Gamer Braves and focused specifically on the fact that after so long and making so many entries, Gearbox Software as a whole came together to make something that truly shines above all the past entries:
“We’ve made a bunch of Borderlands games now, and we’ve tried a bunch of different things. That gave us an advantage in making Borderlands 4 the best in the series.”
While it may not be the current fan-favorite or the highest-rated entry amongst critics, it has done well for itself since launch. It sold 2.5 million in a few days, and many have individually praised it as the “best one yet.”
A key metric for Randy, though, is the stat of how many people are continuing to play after the main campaign wraps up. Data the team got points to players beating the title and then starting over with a new Vault Hunter to see what they can do with them:
“That’s the biggest evidence we have that we succeeded. It’s so gratifying to see people loving it and wanting to spend more time with it.”
Speaking of time, Randy wasn’t afraid to admit that when it came right down to it, a nice chunk of his life went into making this game what it was:
“We’ve been working on this for six years. That’s 20% of my entire career invested in one video game. It’s humbling. We wanted to do right by longtime fans, but also make something new players could jump into with no prior knowledge. I think we succeeded at that.”
The long-term success of the title is still up in the air, and Randy’s “actions” online haven’t been helping things. However, it’s clear the team has done certain things right to keep the franchise thriving, and that’s to be praised.
As we’ve covered here on the site before, franchises that continue on for a long time have a need to grow and evolve so that they don’t become stagnant. To be clear, they need to often stick to the “core values” that made them special in the first place, but there are plenty of ways to grow beyond what came before so that things stay fresh. Borderlands 4 may not be the best game ever due to its technical woes, but most agree that it did embrace the notion of “shaking things up” to keep fans entertained, and no one is more certain of that than Randy Pitchford.
He was at the Tokyo Game Show talking with Gamer Braves and focused specifically on the fact that after so long and making so many entries, Gearbox Software as a whole came together to make something that truly shines above all the past entries:
“We’ve made a bunch of Borderlands games now, and we’ve tried a bunch of different things. That gave us an advantage in making Borderlands 4 the best in the series.”
While it may not be the current fan-favorite or the highest-rated entry amongst critics, it has done well for itself since launch. It sold 2.5 million in a few days, and many have individually praised it as the “best one yet.”
A key metric for Randy, though, is the stat of how many people are continuing to play after the main campaign wraps up. Data the team got points to players beating the title and then starting over with a new Vault Hunter to see what they can do with them:
“That’s the biggest evidence we have that we succeeded. It’s so gratifying to see people loving it and wanting to spend more time with it.”
Speaking of time, Randy wasn’t afraid to admit that when it came right down to it, a nice chunk of his life went into making this game what it was:
“We’ve been working on this for six years. That’s 20% of my entire career invested in one video game. It’s humbling. We wanted to do right by longtime fans, but also make something new players could jump into with no prior knowledge. I think we succeeded at that.”
The long-term success of the title is still up in the air, and Randy’s “actions” online haven’t been helping things. However, it’s clear the team has done certain things right to keep the franchise thriving, and that’s to be praised.
