From a certain perspective, it might seem “odd” to worry about “the future of a video game.” By nature, video games are something you buy, play, and then you stop playing when you’re “ready to stop.” The catch, though, is that certain video games are truly reliant not just on buys from gamers, but continuous play. That continuous play is what helps determine how much goes into future content, updates, and balance patches, so that players can keep enjoying the game for a long time. In the case of Borderlands 4, fans are legitimately wondering just how long things will continue to “grow,” given that change has been slow, and content updates have been “lacking.”
You can see one such worry about things in the tweet below, where one player highlights not only the game’s continued woes on the patch front, which has been delayed a lot, but the fact that the title’s player base is dropping, and that the new content that Gearbox Software is providing is a bit underwhelming:
So, should players be worried about the future of Borderlands 4? It’s a bit complicated, but we’ll do our best to break it down. First and foremost, one of the reasons that the player base is dropping out quickly is partially due to the game’s performance issues. There’s little doubt of that. However, the game also isn’t one that’s meant to take dozens or hundreds of hours to complete. Thus, there are people who have already beaten the game and moved on to something else.
That means that the future content, including the new DLC character, C4SH, alongside new things like the “Invincible” bosses, will determine whether players come back in good numbers and in good time.
However, it must be said that if Gearbox Software doesn’t go and fix the game in a timely manner, things could go south pretty quickly. While it’s true that the new game has sold better at launch than every other title in the franchise, that doesn’t mean that those sales will continue long-term should things not get better. FOMO is something that likely drove initial sales because gamers had faith in the title’s quality.
Now, though, things have been revealed to not be as good as advertised, and so, some are dropping out, and more are likely learning about the game’s woes and attempting to avoid it themselves.
What is the game’s future? It’s hard to say, but if things don’t get fixed and new content isn’t meaningful, it might be a quick end to an anticipated title’s run.
