Randy Pitchford: “We are not working on Borderlands 3”

Borderlands 2 Gearbox

Gearbox have too much on their plate to start work on Borderlands 3. Speaking to Polygon, the studio’s CEO, Randy Pitchford, said “We are not working on Borderlands 3. We have more to do in the franchise, but no there isn’t a Borderlands 3.”

Instead, the studio are working on bringing out an HD release of Homeworld, a new Brothers in Arms game, and Furious Four.

“When you think of what Borderlands 3 should be, it should be massive,” Pitchford told Polygon. “It should be bigger and better than Borderlands 2. It should carry forward the story. It’s probably crazy multiplatform, depending on timing. It would have to be a next-gen game and a current-gen game, if it was coming at any time in the reasonably near future.

“We love Borderlands, and we know customers do too. So we will be doing more in Borderlands. But the thing that, when you think of what Borderlands 3 should be… No. We are not developing that right now. We don’t know what that is yet. We can imagine what it must achieve, but we don’t know what it is yet. I’m not going to fuck around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3. Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don’t know what it is yet. But we are doing things in Borderlands that we’ll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise.”

Pitchford went on to tell Polygon about the work his team are doing in remaking Homeworld – an IP they acquired from THQ when it went under last year. They also have a residual team working on something called Furious four.

Originally a pseudo-sequel to Gearbox’s Brothers in Arms games, Furious Four was meant to be an anti-dour World War II shooter. Everything about it would be bombastic and silly. The game never quite materialised but it didn’t die, either. “We let the game evolve into something totally different. It’ll be a brand new IP. It’s become a whole new game, which we’ll announce when we’re ready.”

The team was split off because Gearbox decided “Brothers in Arms deserves a true Brothers in Arms game.” Pitchford expanded, saying “We haven’t announced anything, but we’ve been working in that regard for a while in sort of secret.

“I don’t know if I would say secret. It’s really just like, this is how ideas form. You have people that care about things, and you let things incubate and cultivate. At some point we’ll hopefully get to a stage where we feel good about being able to say, we’re going to bring another authentic Brothers in Arms game.”