It’s always interesting to see what certain people and companies do to celebrate the holidays. When it comes to video game companies, they can do a range of things, from making special videos to putting certain games on sale or even making big announcements to end the year strongly. For Gearbox Software, they decided to do their own variation on “The 12 Days of Christmas” by giving out special things for players to enjoy on each day. Yesterday, they decided to drop a special “Echo Log” featuring the four Borderlands 4 Vault Hunters talking about what they’ve done in the past for “Mercenary Day.”
We will warn you that because this is Borderlands 4 and not some other titles, the stories aren’t exactly the most wholesome at times, including one of the characters saying they were continually attacked by family and they had to kill them as a result…but there were some honest-to-goodness jokes in there…somewhere…
Regardless, you can watch/listen to the logs below:
What’s interesting here is how this is a rather “joyous” thing to put out. Gearbox Software was clearly trying to “pull back the curtain” a little more on its Vault Hunters and give people a new appreciation for them, you know, in case you weren’t able to hear some of the “finer details” about who they are and what they’ve been through via the game’s main story. It also makes you wonder what else will be revealed in the other days of this “celebration.”
Now, as for whether Gearbox Software has a lot to celebrate with this game, that’s a bit up for debate. You see, the title has been through a lot since it launched in September, and it’s not exactly the prettiest of pictures to break down.
The game started out like a rocket, breaking the franchise record for biggest launch, and the game sold so well that it even took the spot over a certain beloved FPS franchise in the US. However, soon after that, everything fell apart. People rushed to play the game due to hype and positive review scores on places like Metacritic, but once they actually had the game in their own hands, there were plenty of issues on display that the reviews didn’t mention, such as optimization issues.
Since then, the game’s player count has plummeted, and Gearbox Software has been scrambling to keep up and make things better.
Let’s hope they get things back on track in 2026.
