Putting the Borderlands 4 reveal just 2 weeks after the Borderlands movie's $90m flop is being hailed as Randy Pitchford's ultimate "big brain move"

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"Damage control at it’s finest"

Borderlands 4 screenshot showing bandit mask
(Image credit: Gearbox Software)

The newly announced Borderlands 4 is doing a strange bit of damage control for the Gearbox franchise after the disastrous Borderlands movie.

Yesterday at Gamescom Opening Night Live, the showcase kicked off by revealing Borderlands 4 with a 2025 release window from developer Gearbox. This wasn't exactly the best-kept secret in gaming - just earlier this year, publisher 2K confirmed Borderlands 4 was in active development and just one of "numerous projects" on the way from developer Gearbox.

This was all well before Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford very confidently said Borderlands 4 was the "greatest thing" the studio has ever done. There's dancing around something, then there's whatever Pitchford was doing here.

"Big Brain Move: Give movie rights to your franchise to a group that will butcher it... distraction technique! Follow up: Release un-leaked announcement!" reads one Reddit comment reacting to the game announcement. "Damage control at it’s finest" chimes in another comment.

Obviously, cinematic trailers like the one accompanying Borderlands 4's announcement take a long time to make and don't just happen overnight as damage control for a bad movie. No one here is saying that - they're more angling comments around the weird timing of the trailer arriving as a distraction technique for the movie.

In fact, it's worth pointing out that the Borderlands movie already appears to have had a positive effect on the games it takes inspiration from. Borderlands 3 rocketed up Steam's best-sellers chart last week for example, while Borderlands 2 has also seen a huge influx of players. Even if people didn't love the movie, it's good that they're still trying out Gearbox's games. 

Borderlands 3's new update lets players skip to max level in the funniest way possible: starting at the final boss with garbage gear.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.