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Borderlands 4 narrative lead is "ridiculously proud" of the action RPG's story team, celebrating a whole "lot of f***ing people" who helped create a mercifully less stupid plot

News
By Scott McCrae published 12 September 2025

"I am honestly too overwhelmed by the enormity of it all to take it in"

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Borderlands 4
(Image credit: Gearbox Software)
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Borderlands 4's narrative director is celebrating the game's launch, singling out and thanking the narrative team that made it happen.

Borderlands 4 is out today, and one of the main things the team has been talking about in the leadup to launch is the approach its taken to its writing. Even before launch, it was sounding like the story would be deliberately less stupid than previous entries, with narrative director Sam Winkler saying that he tried to keep a lid on the toilet humor. This is especially true when it comes to one specific toilet, as lead writer Taylor Clark made sure to specify that there will not be any references to Skibidi Toilet in the game.

And although our Borderlands 4 review does mention that the dialogue can get irritating, Winkler has taken to Twitter to talk about the process of writing the game now that it's out.

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I am ridiculously proud of our narrative team and the work they have put in over the 6 years of development this game took to produce. The credits at the end of Borderlands 4 are simply listed alphabetically, and so I'd like to highlight here the structure and scale of our team.September 11, 2025

In a lengthy thread on Twitter, Winkler says, "Borderlands 4 is in players' hands and I am honestly too overwhelmed by the enormity of it all to take it in. If you're playing or planning to play, thank you." He then continues the thread singling out members of the narrative team and letting people know which parts of the games are theirs, for example, Clark "came on to the project in the final year, but rapidly became a driving force as we landed the project."

Winkler writes that "I am ridiculously proud of our narrative team and the work they have put in over the six years of development this game took to produce."

At the end of his thread, noting that he's mentioned "a lot of fucking people," he adds: "There's hundreds more across Gearbox, 2K, and external partners. [...] Thanks to all these people for making Borderlands 4."

And (as someone who can't comment because I haven't liked the writing in any of these games) it seems to have worked out, as the negative reviews on Steam seem to be based around the TOS agreement and poor performance.

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Scott McCrae
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Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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