The Borderlands franchise has been going strong for a good while now. Sure, the game franchise stumbled a bit in some players’ eyes with Borderlands 3. However, Gearbox Software looked to course correct with Borderlands 4. That game launched last month, and while it had performance issues with the PC platform, the studio has been bringing out patches to turn things around.
That said, Borderlands 4 might have a good part of the looter shooter genre market. This is according to some of the comments made by Gearbox Software head, Randy Pitchford. There’s also a reason Randy feels there aren’t many good competitors for this franchise.
Randy Pitchford Touches On Borderlands 4 Competitors
There are a few notable looter shooter games in the marketplace. However, Randy Pitchford doesn’t see many of them as good competitors. Recently, the head of Gearbox Software spoke on BBC Radio 5 Live, which we’re finding out about thanks to a report by IGN.
While we covered some of the comments already made in this interview, such as Gearbox Software making changes to the performance settings, there’s another tidbit of information here. During the conversation, the topic of looting came up, and there are numerous combinations here.
Randy Pitchford noted that this also touches on some of the fundamentals for the game franchise. According to Randy, this type of game constantly has players making choices. There are so many builds that could come into play, which Randy finds to be a gratifying loop for players.
We’ve reduced it down to this simple moment with this interface in this system. It’s a gratifying loop. It’s a gratifying decision. Our brains need to do it, and our brains like doing it. And we’re better off when we do it. The more we exercise that muscle, not just in the video game but literally in life — this is what separates our species from a lot of others, and how we developed language and how we developed all kinds of high levels of consciousness and cognition that allow us to analyse the world. Most of what our prefrontal cortex is for — why that adaptation exists and what it’s used for — is that skill, or versions of it. We’ve reduced it down into this design. And yes — the is the thing I’m looking at better than the thing I’ve got, and managing the cognition between the objective, almost scientific analysis of that choice, versus the emotional impact on that choice, and having those at odds with each other frequently, is very interesting, and dare I say it addictive.
That’s something missing with other looter shooters in Randy’s eyes. While he felt that most would pick up on it after the first Borderlands, it seems that most haven’t. It’s allowed Borderlands to thrive, but as Randy feels, the franchise doesn’t necessarily have good competition.
If other game designers that were trying to get in on the action, so to speak, understood that, we’d have more competitors, or we’d have good competitors. But we haven’t so far. It’s weird. The kinds of people that just want to go after it, they’re not thinking about it on that level. They’re just putting into motion something because of market analysis. It’s not a designer’s or creator’s drive that’s doing it. It’s either a business drive or a wishing to be something that you’re not kind of drive.
It’s so weird. I fully expected after the first game came out that everyone would be hip to exactly what you mentioned, and we’d immediately see lots of other games imitating and aping, and we’d be dead, because we can’t compete with a lot of other folks, especially back then. We were the scrappy underdogs.
We’ll just have to see how the future pans out for Borderlands 4 and any competitors that might come. Regardless, if you are enjoying the game, then get ready. Next week, we’re going to see a new seasonal event drop celebrating the spooky Halloween season. Find out what is coming to the game right here.
