Borderlands 4 is almost here – the upcoming looter shooter is finally set to launch this week (unless you're on Switch 2), and Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford wants to give everyone on "lower end and older" PCs some "realistic expectations for performance."
It has been confirmed that a day-one patch is in the works for Borderlands 4, which, in a new series of Twitter posts, Pitchford says "does a lot!" Even so, it won't work miracles.
"The expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable. [...] It's a big, bold, new, seamless world and I'm sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming," he states.
Elaborating on this a bit further, Pitchford explains that in collaboration with Gearbox's engineering team, publisher 2K's quality assurance team "sets the standard and 2K QA reports indicate that they are able to achieve 60fps average with minimum spec PC on typically medium settings." Of course, "different PC configurations will vary," and "HDD vs SDD is also a factor for the hitching."
Pitchford continues: "Yes, Day One patch has some key improvements and optimizations. I just want everyone to have realistic expectations for performance. This is a big, open AAA game and lower end and older hardware may not perform as well as higher end, modern PC's."
If you're at all uncertain about how your PC will handle Borderlands 4, the Gearbox boss says he's "asked for some assets to be generated to show a range of specifications and how they perform with different settings to help users decide."
Overall, though, he concludes: "We're confident in the game's performance and optimization – especially given what the software is doing under the hood!"
"We tend to commit to the bit": Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford talks Borderlands 4, the evolution of looter-shooters, and $80 game discourse.
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