One of the more consistent stories of the last six months is that of how Gearbox Software keeps seeming to “shoot itself in the foot” with certain things that it’s done with the launch of Borderlands 4. First, the game was hyped up to a high level by the team and critics, only for gamers to play the title and feel that it was an optimization nightmare that had plenty of issues. Gearbox’s CEO Randy Pitchford didn’t take too kindly to that, and as fans started to level more complaints, he started to “bite back” online. Then, when it came to post-launch content, things got even wilder.
Many weren’t amused with the content that Gearbox announced for the upcoming year, as some of the advertised additions were things that past titles had at launch, and weren’t paid DLC. Gearbox Software even had to “make free” one of the first pieces of post-launch content because they didn’t get to put everything they wanted to into it, and even what they did have wasn’t the most impressive thing around.
Finally, bringing us to today’s story, they brought out the first of the “Invincible” bosses, where players would have an all-new challenge to take on and see how well they could do. The problem? There was a big in the game, and thus “Boneface The Immortal” was truly immortal. He kept healing via this glitch so that it was truly impossible for players to put him down. However, Gearbox used the official Borderlands 4 Twitter handle to post the following:
Yep, he’s able to die now, so you can have it. Er, have at him. Whatever trips your trigger fingers. This is definitely not something that the team should’ve let happen. This will definitely get more “raised eyebrows” from those playing the game, because they’ll likely say things such as “How did they not know there was a bug that would heal him back up so he can’t die?” It’s hard to say for certain, but when you look at how the other parts of the game were at the title’s launch, perhaps it’s not that “mysterious” at all.
No matter how you look at it, Gearbox Software has a long road ahead, and with each misstep, things will get worse for its title. Don’t forget that the player count for the game isn’t that high right now, despite great sales initially. They have to find a way to both bring players back and keep them there for the rest of the content.
