2.15.2014

Gearbox: Borderlands 3 Not Currently Being Developed, and That's a GOOD Thing.

     Over at Polygon, Randy Pitchford made some comments sure to dishearten all of us Borderlands fans, but I would like to say, "Hey, this is a GOOD thing."


     Firstly, there's this:
     "We are not working on Borderlands 3," he said, "We have more to do in the franchise, but no there isn't a Borderlands 3."
     "When you think of what Borderlands 3 should be, it should be massive," Pitchford said. "It should be bigger and better than Borderlands 2. It should carry forward the story. It's probably crazy multiplatform, depending on timing. It would have to be a next-gen game and a current-gen game, if it was coming at any time in the reasonably near future."
     I cannot argue with this at all.  They want to make something worthwhile to both us the gamers, and worth the brand name they've built.  Why focus a ton of money on making a game on 4 major consoles, PC, and possibly handhelds, when you can make it for just 2 major consoles- eliminate the time and effort of multiplatforming for PS3 and XBox 360.  It's a poor use of resources.
     They are waiting to provide us the better, more excellently produced game we all want.

     Then Pitchford follows with this nice tidbt:
     "We love Borderlands, and we know customers do too. So we will be doing more in Borderlands. But the thing that, when you think of what Borderlands 3 should be... No. We are not developing that right now. We don't know what that is yet. We can imagine what it must achieve, but we don't know what it is yet. I'm not going to fuck around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3. Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don't know what it is yet. But we are doing things in Borderlands that we'll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise."
     Preproduction work and early conceptualizing might be done, but not much more.  Taking a break from it is a good thing to do.  Monetarily they might want to milk the teats off this, but waiting is the smart thing.  They are focusing on their other IPs like Homeworld, Brothers in Arms, Furious 4, and 2 as yet unnamed IPs.  Sure there is a small chance one of them is Borderworlds, but really- we need a break from Borderlands 2.  Let the creators do other things, and come back with fresh eyes to the next installment.

     We have one more bit of DLC coming for the Borderlands franchise with Sir Hammerlock vs. The Son of Crawmerax, and then some time away.  Besides, there are some Borderlands related things that'll be announced soon enough (as mentioned in Pitchford's quote above).  Some things to tide us over and keep us interested while they are away.  We certainly don't want to have an over-saturated market for the game, and subsequently get burnt-out developers creating less-than-great work.

     Personally, I would rather wait, and have a 3rd game arrive in like 4 years, once the new systems are hitting their stride and pushing the limits of what can be done.  A good, comforting thought- take advantage of the new hardware without needing to limit it to the old generation's capabilities.

     There's plenty for them to add and build from- A complete overhaul on the loot system- more companies, more parts, and MORE VARIANCE!  I have so many guns that are too alike despite being completely different.  Even in the first Borderlands, at least the weapons all had different "feels" if they were similar.
     There's the "only 6 Sirens at one time in the universe" statement.  There's the Seraph's.  The Cult of the Vault.  Companies like Atlus returning to wreak vengeance on other companies.  There are a plethora of things they have to expand on, and I'd rather they take their time to craft a story and game to fit our expectations, so we don't end up with a pile of Skag-crap.

     Considering that Borderlands 2 essentially made them a bazillion dollars, there's definitely something in store for the future of the series, it's probably just in the ideas stage right now.

     Source [ Polygon ]

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