RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has insisted publisher 2K remains committed to Borderlands 4 , and that the looter shooter's commercial performance hasn’t affected plans to support the game.
Some within the Borderlands community are wondering how long developer Gearbox will support Borderlands 4 in terms of meaningful DLC as it approaches the end of year one. There are questions swirling around about how well Borderlands 4 has done not just in terms of launch sales, but continuing player base, and how that might affect Gearbox's plans.
Here's what we know: arriving in early September, Loveless the Hacker will be the newest Vault Hunter coming to Borderlands 4 as part of the paid DLC of Story Pack 2, which also launches that month. Story Pack 2 and Bounty Pack 5 arrive on the same day alongside the Version 1.10 update.
But what’s coming in year two, if anything? Gearbox has yet to announce a roadmap of content for the rest of 2026 and beyond, leaving some to wonder if the developer will move on to focus on the next game in the series, or perhaps something else entirely. If Year 2 content is coming, what will it include, and, crucially, how much will it cost?
In a recent interview with Strauss Zelnick, CEO of 2K and Gearbox parent company Take-Two, I asked if Borderlands 4’s performance had affected plans for long-term support for the game. His answer was a definitive “no.”
“Performance has not affected our plans at all,” he insisted. “We have another Borderlands [content pack] coming. We continue to support the title. We've had plenty of incremental releases of content. So no, we're totally supporting it. We're thrilled with the performance, and thrilled with the reviews and the scores.”
Zelnick may be "thrilled" with how Borderlands 4 has done, but it's fair to say the game has had a rollercoaster first year. Since launching in September, Borderlands 4 has suffered various controversies, mostly to do with severe PC performance issues. Outspoken CEO Randy Pitchford went on the offensive , responding directly to complaints on social media to Claptrap back at disgruntled fans . Zelnick previously admitted that Borderlands 4 sales had suffered “a little bit of softness” as a result of the technical issues, but expressed confidence “it’ll all be made up” given enough time. The Nintendo Switch 2 version was scrapped , with Take-Two saying Gearbox had prioritized continued "improvements" to the game on its existing platforms.
All the while, Borderlands 4 remains on a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam. After launching to over 300,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, Borderlands 4 now averages a concurrent peak in the four digits. Steam numbers don’t paint the entire picture of a game’s popularity as it’s also on consoles, but it’s clear Borderlands 4 could do with a shot in the arm.
Will the release of Story Pack 2 and a new playable character prove to be just that? Story Pack 1, which added playable character, C4SH, earlier this year, didn’t really move the needle in terms of Steam concurrents. Gearbox and Take-Two will be hoping Loveless the Hacker has a meaningful impact.
We've got plenty more from our interview with Zelnick, including his comments on the GTA 6 price points , his defence of GTA 6 not launching on a disc , and his prediction for when video game streaming will actually be good .
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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