Gearbox CEO Reflects on Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and Borderlands 4

Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software, expressed his wish for the development of "big campaign DLC" for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. However, he admitted that the studio couldn't allocate resources for both this expansion and the upcoming Borderlands 4.

In a tweet last week, Pitchford addressed concerns over claims that Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was a flop. While the initial comments focused on the game's lack of post-launch support rather than its sales performance, Pitchford clarified that Wonderlands had sold well, stating that it was "extremely far from a flop."

Despite its sales success, the absence of significant post-launch content for Wonderlands seems to have been a point of regret for Pitchford. He explained, "I wish we could've managed some big campaign DLC, but there was no way to do that and put the focus on Borderlands 4 that we needed to."

Gearbox appeared genuinely surprised by the success of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. Following its release in 2022, the company announced that the game had "shattered all of our target expectations" and achieved substantial financial success. At that time, Gearbox hinted at more content for Wonderlands, but it seems the timeline didn't allow for any major expansions.

Hints about a new Borderlands game were already being dropped as early as 2021, with some suggesting that the concept for Borderlands 4 was in the works even before Wonderlands launched. Pitchford expressed regret about not being able to communicate the situation earlier, saying, "I'm so sorry I wasn't able to talk about the situation around Wonderlands at the time." He acknowledged that large announcements are carefully planned and not casually revealed in tweets, even if they interfere with DLC for spin-offs. Despite the challenges, the future of Borderlands video games looks promising.

Interestingly, Pitchford's timing in revealing Borderlands 4 just two weeks after the Borderlands movie's $90 million failure has been praised as a strategic masterstroke by some, dubbed his ultimate "big brain move."