Gearbox's Randy Pitchford is pretty happy with Borderlands 4 story feedback: "Isn't it weird to ship a game where the biggest complaint isn't how we f***ed up the story?"

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"Everyone's like, 'nah, story's awesome, characters, we love it'"

Borderlands 4
(Image credit: 2K)

Gearbox has apparently been getting some positive feedback on Borderlands 4's story, and as he is wont to do, CEO Randy Pitchford is sharing is thoughts on the game's launch.

Appearing at a panel for PAX Australia 2025, Pitchford, Gearbox global creative executive officer Andrew Reiner, and narrative director Sam Winkler reflected on the launch of Borderlands 4 and, specifically, feedback relating to the game's story, which indeed has largely been positive.

"It's been great. It's been really good, I'll be honest, I'm really happy with it," said Winkler.

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"Isn't it weird to ship a game where the biggest complaint isn't how we fucked up the story?" asked an incredulous Pitchford.

"Yeah, it's a relief, for sure," Winkler agreed.

What followed is a fairly indecipherable stream of consciousness from Pitchford in which he seemed to express some degree of surprised comfort in the fact that most of the negative feedback from Borderlands 4 players is about technical performance, which definitely seems like the biggest pain point so far, particularly for PC players.

"Everyone's like, 'Nah, story's awesome, characters, we love it, and gameplay's great.' And we're like, 'God, I know there's gotta be, you know, OK, let's get technical.' Cool. That's cool. I'm happy to live in that world," Pitchford said. Pitchford's suggestions that PC problems could seem overblown may not have helped this world, but Gearbox has been patching away.

I don't want to presume too much based on these limited comments, but it's safe to assume Pitchford and co. are commenting on Borderlands 4's story from within the context of Borderlands 3's story being pretty uniformly lambasted.

Personally, I play these games to catch up with friends who live far away while pew pewing pinheads left, right, and center, but I suppose there are fans of the series who like knowing what's going on, and thankfully, Borderlands 4 seems to deliver on that front more so than past entries.

"You and the team just crushed it on the storytelling," Pitchford said to Winkler.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford said we'd have to wait at least 5 years to see Borderlands 4 get a major discount, but we've only had to wait 1 month for its first smaller discount as it's already 20% off on Steam.

Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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