Borderlands 4 Switch 2 port looks dead as Gearbox parent Take-Two "pauses development"

Borderlands 4 might never come to Switch 2 after all, as Gearbox parent company Take-Two Interactive has now confirmed development on the port has been paused.

Gearbox delayed Borderlands 4 on Switch 2 indefinitely back in September, saying at the time that it needed "additional development and polish," but Take-Two is now confirming much more decisively that the port is probably not happening at all, at least not anytime soon.

In an interview with Variety, Take-Two spokesperson Alan Lewis revealed: "We made the difficult decision to pause development on that SKU," referring to Borderlands 4 on Switch 2.

This is of course a stinging blow to Borderlands fans who've been waiting months to play the game on Switch 2. It's wild to think back on a story I wrote in July about Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford announcing the Switch 2 release date for October, from a literal throne, and hailing Nintendo's new console as "a fricking awesome platform," now knowing that the port would never - and likely will never - surface.

"Our focus continues to be delivering quality post-launch content for players on the ongoing improvements to optimize the game," added Lewis. "We're continuing to collaborate closely with our friends at Nintendo. We have 'PGA Tour 2K25' coming out and 'WWE 2K26' [for Switch 2], and we're incredibly excited about bringing more of our titles to that platform in the future."

Considering Borderlands 4's rough performance on much more powerful hardware, it's not a huge surprise that Gearbox struggled to make it work on Switch 2, but with pre-orders having previously been open - not to mention Pitchford's antics hyping up the release - the whiplash from that to this is dizzying.

While you won't find Borderlands 4 on our list of the best Switch 2 games, you will find some other gems worth checking out.