Gamers have been very critical of Borderlands 4 after the trailer was first released, but Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has had enough of the criticism.

Borderlands is a popular franchise full of colorful characters, endless weapons and witty dialogue. The series’ take an apocolyptic shooter was a massive hit with the first two games, but Borderlands 3 was a bit of a disappointment. Gamers had mixed reviews, with some claiming that the gunplay was improved from the past games but others feeling that the story was weak and the game lacked the same gritty magic of the previous games.

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What Is The Worst Video Game Movie Of All time? – And Why Is It Borderlands?

There are plenty of awful video game movies to choose from, like the Doom film, the original Super Mario Bros. film and more recently the utterly terrible Borderlands film. It turned a bright, crazy and colorful world of Pandora into a gray boring mess, Kevin Hart had no personality, Cate Blanchett seemed bored and like she hated being there throughout the film, they even managed to make both Jack Black and Claptrap unfunny. Is there really any other choice?

The Borderlands movie was largely considered a flop that didn’t stick to the source material. Some gamers felt that Gearbox was desperate to redeem itself after the movie by introducing Borderlands 4 right after, leaving many with very high hopes for the upcoming game. With many hoping that the game will live up to the first two in the series, the pressure is immense, and the criticism has been rolling in.

The Borderlands 4 trailer seemed to be taking the series in a new direction, with a lot of the potty humor removed and replaced with more intense action. But gamers are worried that it now feels generic and uninspired compared to the magic of the early games, which seemed to have struck the right balance between dark humor and wild gunplay.

Gearbox CEO Responds to Borderlands 4 Criticism

​​​​​​​Criticism and worry has been mounting ahead of Borderlands 4‘s fall 2025 release. This includes some concerns from Midwest Games’ Audience Director Gothalion and other streamers, who recently pointed out some of the game’s potential issues. This streamed discussion got some backlash from Gothalion, who later took to X to say that the critcism was from “a place of love.”

Pitchford responded:

“I didn’t see any critique. I just saw s***** negativity that was demotivating. Want the best Borderlands? Root for us and cheer us on. If you take developers’ passion for granted, we’ll all pay the price. I love criticism and, thankfully, I have never been in short supply. Don’t gaslight me on his post. It wasn’t criticism. It was pessimism. It’s toxic for people killing themselves for your entertainment, so f*** that noise.”

This is not a surprising response from Pitchford, who has been vocal about his thoughts with the gaming community in the past. He has also not been afraid to call out Epic Games, Steam and other video game companies publicly. Still, the gaming community reacted with frustration at Pitchford’s rant on X. Many responded by calling Pitchford an ongoing “crybaby” and accusing the game of having uninspired and unlikeable character designs compared to older games.

Borderlands 4 releases on Sept. 23, 2025, a year already destined to go down in the video game history books. Not only does 2025 mark the return of iconic franchises like Borderlands and Civilization, but the year will also see the launch of Nintendo’s highly anticipated Switch 2 console. Of course, this year’s biggest release will likely be Grand Theft Auto 6, a game also helmed by the Borderlands series’ parent company, Take-Two Interactive.

Source: Randy Pitchford on X

Borderlands 4

Looter Shooter

Action

Adventure

RPG

Systems

Released

September 23, 2025

ESRB

Rating Pending

Developer(s)

Gearbox Software

Publisher(s)

2K