Randy Pitchford on Borderlands 4’s guns: “Some of them are probably going to end up being game-breaking”
It’s almost time for the anticipated Borderlands 4 to make its arrival on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S (with Nintendo Switch 2 coming a little later in October), as the fourth mainline chapter will debut on September 12. While we can expect a new storyline with fresh villains to face and overcome, a host of new Vault Hunters to master, and a brand-spanking and slightly different world to explore, we can also look ahead to looting and adding frankly too many new weapons to our collection.
In fact, the opportunities for unique weapons will be in the billions thanks to the Licensed Parts system that means weapons can combine various elements from the different manufacturers to create things we have never seen before. Naturally, Gearbox expects weird things to come from this system, across the spectrum of being incredibly powerful and incredibly useless, and talking about the former, CEO Randy Pitchford told us that they will do their best not to nerf the craziest and most powerful items players can find.
When asked about Borderlands 4’s new weapon system, Pitchford explained: “It is Borderlands. Look, we don’t stop. With loot especially, it’s not just about guns. Guns are everything. I mean, guns are so much about the game. And we have literally billions of different kinds of guns.
“We’ve created a new system that allows us to mix and match manufacturers. The idea is that one manufacturer might license some of their technology to another, and that allows us to stack manufacturer special abilities. So it’s kind of fun to find loot that you could never get in Borderlands 3, loot that has combinations that are very rare and very interesting, things, frankly, that we haven’t even seen yet because there’s so many possible combinations. And I think some of them are probably going to end up being game-breaking. We’ll try our hardest not to nerf anything if they’re awesome, but, you know, it is a living product.
“But it doesn’t just stop there. One of my favorite new things is this idea that we call ordnance, where we’ve taken the grenade button, and instead of only allowing you to throw grenades in there, we have a whole range of cool things from big, huge, like, mini guns and rocket launchers to throwing knives. All kinds of stuff can be put in there, and it’s almost like an extra action skill if you use it that way. And I love that.”
You can see the full interview with Pitchford below, to even hear which of the Vault Hunters he will be playing come launch.