PREVIEW – Gearbox hit rock bottom with Battleborn. The game was intended to become a new “service product” by the creators of Borderlands, but could not stand face to face with Overwatch. After the defeat of Battleborn the company of Randy Pitchford seems to return to the world of Borderlands, and, although the game has not yet been announced officially, the manager plays with the teaser of the third Borderlands whenever it has the opportunity. The last occasion has been this same weekend in PAX East, where he assured that 90% of the team is working “in what you want us to work.” However, on Borderlands 3 there is a lot of data from recent months beyond these recent statements.

At the PAX East in 2016, following the launch of Battleborn, Randy Pitchford began talking openly about Borderlands’ return: “It’s no secret, there’s obviously going to be a new Borderlands.” From there the names related to the new game begin to emerge.

The A-Team

The first of them is Scott Kester, who will be the art director for the next title. Kester usually works on the Gearbox developments, both in Battleborn, as well as in the previous major deliveries of Borderlands. Thus, his presence represents continuity.

Another to join the development of the new delivery of Borderlands, as collected by Eurogamer, was Mikey Neumann. Neumann, screenwriter of the saga, however, was forced to leave the studio recently due to health problems. Before leaving the company was already immersed in writing the third Borderlands, making it a painful loss for development. The work of Neumann has been especially important in the saga because much of the success of Borderlands lies in its charisma and its humor. Anyone who admires the work of Neumann can approach his YouTube channel on film criticism, the main occupation of the screenwriter today.

Another Gearbox veteran, Paul Hellquist, creative director of the second installment of Borderlands, also dropped out of the studio in the year 2015. In the Hellquist case, he moved away from Pitchford’s company to enter Robot Entertainment (Orcs Must Die).

Finally, the one that seems to maintain continuity in the development for the third delivery is Randy Varnell, creative director of Battleborn. Before starting work on the last game, Varnell was working on Borderlands 2 production. It was another one that has spoken openly about the development of the new Borderlands, so it can be assumed that it is also involved.

Target Platforms

In the context of the GDC it was possibly the place where Pitchford spoke in more detail of what is being done with the saga. The chosen engine returns to be Unreal Engine, in this case UE4, and the target platforms PS4, Xbox One and computer. Without ruling out a possible version for the Nintendo Switch, for now does not enter the plans of the team.

Doing a shoot… I may or may not be a psycho bandit in a video game we may or may not be working on. Also, happy Bulletstorm launch day! pic.twitter.com/5X9ZzC6kdJ

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 7, 2017

Artworks

In the last GDC of San Francisco, the company also revealed the first concepts of developmental art. All this came to light in the context of a conference mainly focused on the developer community, so Pitchford warned that it did not necessarily belong to Borderlands 3. However, the images leave little room for doubt.

More details on the project come from Twitter. Obviously this is a connected adventure, like all other games, and Pitchford does not rule out cross-play between platforms. These words can be promises to the wind, but according to Microsoft’s commitment to cross communities in Play Anywhere, at least the PC version and Xbox One have the possibility of unifying players.

@DuvalMagic do you think a feature like crossplatform play would possible for the next possible game in the Borderlands series

— Samuel Whittaker (@BrambleSnap) June 21, 2017

Take Two advances information about the date

Finally, it is not the only Gearbox that directly launches to talk about the development of the new Borderlands, but that Take Two confirmed “a new title of one of the biggest franchises of 2K” in 2018. Possibilities are Bioshock and Borderlands, and the greater probability is that Borderlands will be involved. The game would be launched, according to these estimates, between the end of 2018 and early 2019 to fit into the next fiscal year.

Official? Not yet. Pitchford joked about it this weekend: “Something does not exist until it has been announced.” However, that Borderlands 3 is on its way is an open secret that no one particularly bothered to hide.

-PS4Pro-

Publisher: Take 2

Developer: Gearbox

Genre: TPS

Relase date: TBA