Criticism of Borderlands 4 has been constant since its launch, but one element seems to be winning fans over: the story. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford is quite pleased about that.
He spoke about it during PAX Australia 2025, in a panel with Andrew Reiner, Gearbox’s Global Creative Executive Officer, and Sam Winkler, Narrative Director of Borderlands 4.
Gearbox Talks About the Story of Borderlands 4
“It’s been great. It’s been really good, I’ll be honest, I’m really happy with it,” said Winkler. “Isn’t it weird to ship a game where the biggest complaint isn’t how we fucked up the story?” Pitchford asked with surprise. “Yeah, it’s a relief, for sure,” Winkler agreed.
Pitchford then launched into a somewhat chaotic stream of thought, which, though hard to follow, clearly indicated a sense of relief and surprise. He was glad to see that most fan complaints were about technical and performance issues rather than the narrative itself.
Why the CEO Sees This as a Positive Sign
It seems that the reason is quite simple: technical issues can always be improved through updates, while the story is more or less final — unless future DLCs perform miracles and add new depth to the original work.
Pitchford’s happiness also likely stems from the fact that the story in Borderlands 3 was not particularly well received.
In related news, Borderlands 4’s Nintendo Switch 2 release has been delayed indefinitely just days before launch, as Gearbox cites technical issues and extra polish time.
