Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford says Wolfenstein 3D and Diablo influenced the OG Borderlands as the devs aimed to "blend the moment-to-moment fun of a shooter" with the satisfaction of progression

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has been discussing the inspirations behind the original Borderlands, pointing to Wolfenstein 3D and Diablo as particularly influential games.

In a new interview shared on the Epic Games site, Pitchford explains the development of Borderlands 1 by more widely looking at the looter shooter genre, which Gearbox's series helped popularize. "The fundamental thesis that I started with on Borderlands was, 'Let's blend the moment-to-moment fun of a shooter with the long-term, compelling feelings that we get from the growth and progression of role-playing games," he explains.

Later in the interview, Pitchford discusses the games that inspired the original Borderlands and its combination of skill-based action with that satisfying loot grind, explaining: "Before I played Wolfenstein 3D, I was strictly a roleplaying game guy, both in the games I loved to play, but also in the games I was making. When Wolfenstein came out, it really changed something. It made me find a thrill and a joy in action games."

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He then mentions Diablo, specifically in relation to how its loot drives players to keep playing in order to continually grow. "These two genres can't be further apart," he says, adding: "The skill to play Diablo is the same skill that is required to launch the application."

Pitchford continues: "What we did [with Borderlands] is we committed to the shooter aspects, our shooter gameplay, and that moment-to-moment fun holds up. All that skilled play works." On top of that, "all that long-term play, the ambition of progression, and the feeling of progression has to work, too."

It's a formula that's served the series well up to this point, and hopefully it'll continue to for Borderlands 4, which is set to release PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on September 12, before arriving on Switch 2 on October 3.

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