With Borderlands 3 and its divisive story in the rearview mirror, developer Gearbox Software program is driving full velocity forward to Borderlands 4 and the totalitarian planet of Kairos.
The lengthy highway to the launch of a fourth mainline Borderlands recreation had a bumpy begin. Whereas loads fell in love with Borderlands 3 and its enhancements to the looter-shooter collection’ gunplay, others nonetheless wrestle with its joke-fueled story and reliance on rest room humor. It could have been virtually precisely six years since its launch when Borderlands 4’s September 12, 2025 launch date arrives. Now, followers are on the sting of their seats, ready to see how Gearbox spent its time.
We caught up with Gearbox narrative director Sam Winkler, lead author Taylor Clark, and managing director of narrative properties Lin Joyce to study extra about why the workforce determined to create a extra grounded story for Borderlands 4. Alongside the best way, we discovered how the elusive Timekeeper can stand toe-to-toe with Good-looking Jack, how controversial characters like Ava may nonetheless have a future in the collection, and we even discovered how the upcoming DLC will match in with Borderlands 4’s fundamental marketing campaign.
IGN: Gearbox has been very clear that Borderlands 4 will function a extra grounded story and tone. How did the conversations to shift the tone start, and is that this the route the workforce has adopted from the start of growth?
Sam Winkler: These conversations began as early because the conversations of, ‘Hey, what the hell does Borderlands 4 appear to be?’ Even earlier than Borderlands 3 was shipped and out the door. One thing I prefer to remind individuals is that the devs are sometimes the primary followers of a recreation and in addition the primary critics. I believe that we had some personal inner critiques in regards to the tone and the extent of humor current in Borderlands 3.
[It’s] one thing that we already had been beginning to tackle in the DLCs for Borderlands 3, however we wished to essentially make {that a} central level of Borderlands 4. So, as we had these very giant conversations of, in world context, ‘The place is that this? What does it imply? Why are we doing this subsequent large, monolithic recreation with a 4 in its title?’ [we said], ‘How are we additionally going to evolve the storytelling, the humor, and the characters, and what we wish to do with them?’
Taylor Clark: I got here aboard loads later than Sam. I have been on the sport for a few years, and it was undoubtedly one thing from the second that I got here on board, once I was speaking to Sam, the grounded tone was a precedence. Grounding the humor in the world, he made it very clear that if I attempted to place a meme in the sport, he would come to my home with a baseball bat [laughs]. So, it was undoubtedly in the temporary from the start to make the tone match the world.
Winkler: I do not wish to swing the needle too arduous on that entrance. I’m not anti-meme. In actual fact, hey, unique: There is a particular meme in this recreation, and I really feel justified placing it in as a result of I unintentionally created it. Sure, I did not imply for it to turn into a meme, however it turned a meme, and it is in the online game. That’s all I’ll say.
IGN: We will not know what meme it’s?
Winkler: Look, I’ve a few Know Your Meme pages that credit score me, and I’ll allow you to do any journalistic soiled work that you could.
Clark: It doesn’t contain a Skibidi Bathroom.
Winkler: It doesn’t. Yeah, there are bathrooms in our recreation. I am going to say that.
Clark: The place else would you get ammunition?
Winkler: Precisely. In Borderlands, solely bathrooms and washing machines.
IGN: No Skibidi Bathrooms, although.
Clark: No. No.
Winkler: None.
IGN: I believe some persons are going to be actually blissful to listen to that. I am questioning for those who can examine the tone in Borderlands 4 to a few of the earlier video games. It looks as if the workforce undoubtedly wished to have a extra grounded tone than 3, for certain. So, how would you examine the tone or joke frequency to one thing like 1, 2, and even spinoffs like Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands?
Clark: The way in which that I’ve at all times talked about it, personally, was that, in Borderlands 1, 2, and three, we had been on Pandora, proper? Pandora was a wild west. It was a spot the place firms had been stabbing one another in the again for supremacy. So, there was plenty of antic power in that place, and with these villains that we had been coping with, it made plenty of sense to have extra zany, like, gun-slinging jokes, you recognize? Hip-firing jokes tone.
Kairos is a unique place. Kairos is a totalitarian planet dominated over by this dictatorial determine referred to as the Timekeeper, who sits far above all of it. On this context of world oppression, the Whac-A-Mole joke type did not make as a lot sense. So, plenty of it needed to do with ensuring that the tone match the stakes of the world, and that the humor was rising organically out of conditions, out of character moments, moderately than the wild west really feel of the primary video games.
Lin Joyce: I’ll let Sam speak to the distinction, too, in the mandate between 3 and 4, however I’ll double faucet too, that what we had been in search of is that the humor in Borderlands 4 works on the stage of Kairos and the characters. We weren’t making jokes that might solely land for the participant.
It was a intestine verify, ‘Is that this as humorous to the characters and their lived expertise as it’s to the participant? Can we do each?’ That situational comedy and context helped us additionally maintain the tone grounded, and the comedy then has objective. However Sam can speak in regards to the frequency between Borderlands 3 and 4.
Winkler: I imply… I went again and performed each single Borderlands recreation. 1, 2, Pre-Sequel, [Tales from the Borderlands], the whole lot like that. Simply to look at, not simply the tone of humor, but additionally the vectors of humor, proper? I believe individuals speak loads about our humor from the attitude of individuals chatting in your ear. However I used to be actually struck by, for instance, in Borderlands 1, a lot of the NPCs did not have a ton of precise audio to say.
It was fairly sparse on that entrance, and plenty of the humor got here out of conditions. Comedic, often darkly comedic, circumstances, but additionally the best way issues had been named, the textual content in the mission settle for, that form of factor. I believe that contributed loads to gamers’ notion of Borderlands 1 as having a extra darkish, grounded tone, is it’s a quieter recreation, and plenty of the humor stems situationally and organically.
So, that was one thing that we tried to work with the design workforce, the mission design workforce, and the whole lot like that, to say, ‘Hey, we will have heavy moments. We will have grounded moments, however we will even have wacky circumstances that come up out of the gamers’ actions and the NPCs that come at them.’ We wished to ensure that humor wasn’t just a few sticker that we’re slapping on one thing, you recognize what I imply? The opposite factor is that, with design shifts, our mentality to humor needed to shift as effectively. With Borderlands 4 going into this seamless, explore-to-your-own-tastes gameplay expertise, we couldn’t management the place the participant was going to go subsequent.
We could not at all times script individuals’s open-world exploration, [and] that allowed that house to only be naturally crammed. Whether or not it is by way of fight dialog or participant characters, or simply silence and soundtrack and atmosphere and temper. It simply inherently modified our method to it.
IGN: Considered one of my different questions is, ‘Why ought to gamers who’ve been with the collection for 16 years not be anxious about this shift?’ However I believe that type of solutions it. It nonetheless feels and sounds prefer it’s very Borderlands.
Clark: For certain. It is unmistakably Borderlands, however we’re always tweaking the dials of sure elements to make the tone match the sport that we wish to create, and to reply to our inner and exterior suggestions.
Joyce: At no level did we are saying, ‘Let’s cease being humorous in Borderlands. Let’s not try this anymore.’ It continues to be a Borderlands recreation made by a Borderlands workforce, many who’ve been right here since 1.
Clark: We’re not making an arthouse Borderlands recreation [laughs].
Winkler: However, additionally, it is a large recreation, proper? It shouldn’t be a monolith. There are areas of our recreation which might be extra critical. There are areas of our recreation which might be extra humor-filled. There are characters that do not take issues as significantly, in a diegetic approach. For the gamers who’ve been long-time franchise followers, I believe they’ll discover flavors that they are in search of all throughout Kairos. In the event that they play one facet mission or work together with one character that does not fairly vibe with them, there’s most likely one other one not too far off that they are going to vibe with.
IGN: For the sake of comparability, are there some other tales from throughout motion pictures, books, TV, or video games that the workforce feels are just like the tone that you just guys are going for? Are there any specific inspirations that you could level to?
Joyce: There should be so many. We’re always throwing round, ‘Have you ever seen…? It’s slightly like that.’ However now that you just’re asking it straight, I am like, ‘Which one…’
Winkler: I do not wish to use it as a straight comp, however a present that I have been actually impressed by has been Star Trek: Decrease Decks, which may be very, very a lot a comedic present. It has wacky power to it, however it works, and it really works rather well — it simply received a Hugo Award — as a result of it takes its characters significantly. It takes its circumstances significantly, and if one thing is wacky, there’s often somebody there to level out, like, ‘That is wacky and tremendous unsafe, and it should not work that approach.’
It is a undertaking that’s clearly made out of affection for Star Trek and the characters in the story, moderately than some form of parody of it. I believe that on Borderlands 3, in our worst hours, it typically felt like parody, and that’s the place we edged right into a purple line, I believe, for lots of followers and for myself, personally. So, we wished to look in direction of different media that would steadiness that. [That] may steadiness each humor, levity, and genuine character storytelling that takes itself significantly.
IGN: One character I did wish to ask about from Borderlands 3 that I did not notably thoughts in any respect however others had an issue with is Ava. She’s a personality that plenty of followers affiliate their dissatisfaction with Borderlands 3’s story with. With so many different memorable faces again for Borderlands 4, can followers anticipate to see her present up, too? If not, is there any room for her to return in the long run?
Winkler: I don’t suppose we’re going to reply any questions on characters that we haven’t proven off but. I believe the one factor that I’ll say is, I’m not an enormous fan of eradicating or killing off characters off-screen except it completely has to occur. We don’t neglect about characters, and we wish to ensure that storylines are accomplished. That’s it.
I hear all of the complaints about Ava. I had some points with how we had been capable of painting her. We had been unable to indicate a few of, I believe, her extra heartfelt moments in the bottom recreation of BL3. We used the Director’s Lower to indicate off what Maya’s funeral may have been and what the connection between Ava and Lilith may have been. We didn’t have that chance in Borderlands 3, however it’s the type of factor that I nonetheless imagine in and that I might love to deal with once more another time.
IGN: In typical Borderlands style, Gearbox has free and paid post-launch DLC in the works. Quite a lot of it, by the sounds of it. We don’t should get too into specifics; I do know plenty of that stuff continues to be very a lot in growth. However will that very same grounded tone carry over to the DLC? Will the workforce take the chance to indicate us a few of the much less grounded corners of Kairos?
Clark: Similar to the final query, I believe we’re restricted in what we will say in regards to the post-launch content material that we’re engaged on. I believe it’s protected to say that the plan is for the tone to be constant between the merchandise.
Winkler: I’ll say this: the perfect factor about Borderlands further content material, like full marketing campaign DLCs, or a few of the dwell occasions that we’ve finished — we did the vacations and stuff like that in earlier video games — is it permits us to discover totally different tones and totally different corners of the Borderlands world and do totally different genres and the whole lot like that. So, I might anticipate that very same stage of creativity and exploration from the place we go in the long run.
Joyce: I might lengthen it to be… I might have a look at the DLC content material and name it complementary, proper? It enhances the bottom recreation. It goes to be totally different, however complementary. Or, for those who want a unique metaphor, the items of apparel might be coordinated to make a pleasant outfit, actually. You choose which metaphor you want higher there.
Clark: It’s powerful to speak about in imprecise phrases. We’d love to speak about it extra.
Winkler: Particularly as a result of a few of it we don’t know but. It is in lively growth. Borderlands 4 is getting stamped onto DVDs someplace and… really [laughs] I believe it’s Blu-rays. However in the meantime, we’re cooking on that subsequent group of content material, and we all know an entire bunch of it. We’re actively engaged on it, however a few of it’s nonetheless in growth.
IGN: How lengthy do you suppose it’s going to take to finish Borderlands 4’s fundamental marketing campaign, after which how lengthy will it take to finish the primary marketing campaign plus the entire facet content material?
Clark: This got here up some in prior interviews. The reply that I and Chris Brock, our lead producer, gave on this was to level out that, whereas we won’t say a particular quantity, we will say that, after we bought collectively to do a playthrough collectively — Sam, me, Lin, a bunch of others, our inventive director, Graeme [Timmins], Randy Pitchford — after we had been doing work, doing play throughs of these items, and to guage the way it was going, taking part in by way of your complete fundamental marketing campaign took us days and days. It took a very long time. It is a meaty piece of content material.
Winkler: And that was a straight line. That was doing principally no facet content material.
Clark: That was scaling harm to 10,000% and simply mowing by way of stuff.
Joyce: The opposite anecdote I may most likely give there, safely, is, I meet each week with Andrew Reiner, our world inventive govt officer. Final week he mentioned, ‘I’ve began, I’ll say, the million-teenth run of the sport.’ He is like, ‘This time, the aim is 100% it.’ I used to be like, ‘How lengthy have you ever been taking part in?’ All week. ‘How far have you ever gotten?’ Nonetheless in the primary zone [laughs].
Winkler: That is an excellent issue, and going again to what I mentioned, the seamless world permits gamers to have slightly bit extra alternative in regards to the order in which they tackle the story. We’ve got seen play testers wish to undergo the mainline, in order that they’re bouncing round between the totally different zones and seeing all kinds of the sport.
We have additionally seen testers who’re similar to, ‘I am going to enter this zone. I’ll see the whole lot I can probably see. I’ll scrape the barrel, after which I am going over to the subsequent zone.’ One participant’s first 15, 20 hours may look very, very totally different from one other participant’s.
IGN: It’s an enormous Borderlands recreation.
Winkler: It do be large.
IGN: For thus many individuals, Borderlands villains are the rationale plenty of of us present up for this collection. Clearly, Good-looking Jack is likely one of the all-time nice online game villains. I am questioning, as a result of there are such a lot of theories in regards to the Timekeeper, particularly, and I do not wish to know what it’s, however does this character have any id previous that Timekeeper title? Is there some thriller, some intrigue you wish to construct up with him?
Joyce: You ask nice questions [laughs]. To what diploma can we reply them is a tricky one.
Winkler: The Timekeeper is like an onion. He has layers… Nobody’s used that earlier than, proper?
Clark: I believe the reply is sure. Is there a thriller to him? Sure [laughs].
Joyce: We may speak about, actually, how we approached crafting him and writing him. That is one other angle into answering your query. The timekeeper, one of many issues that makes him totally different and retains an air of intentional thriller round him, is that he’s not in your face always. He sits in his excessive tower with a view of your complete planet, and his prerogative is to maintain your complete planet below order.
So, after we first present up, the Vault Hunter is mildly of curiosity, however he is bought many different issues to do. So, we additionally should, as gamers, over time, acquire his consideration an increasing number of. That was a really totally different strategy to method writing a villain right into a Borderlands recreation than we had finished earlier than. And I am going to let Sam and Taylor run from there.
Clark: I believe we, as inventive individuals, are at all times difficult ourselves to not repeat ourselves, to have characters who’re appreciably totally different, who’ve totally different sorts of tales and have totally different sorts of issues to say in every entry. The Timekeeper is appreciably totally different from the prior villains in the Borderlands collection. He’s a brand new frontier, I believe, as a personality.
IGN: One of many issues I see pop up so usually is comparisons to Good-looking Jack. It at all times goes again to him. The theories return to him. It’s a bit mind-boggling, virtually, at this level, to be greater than a decade faraway from that character, and nonetheless it is introduced up. What sort of stress does the workforce really feel, if any, to proceed creating villains as impactful as him, particularly? Did that stress ever affect the route you have taken for the Timekeeper?
Winkler: Oh, I imply, how may it not, proper? Think about engaged on Star Wars, and it’s a must to give you one thing as scary as Darth Vader. Good-looking Jack is a gaming icon, and I used to be a fan of Borderlands 2 earlier than I set foot in Gearbox, so I had that thought in my head as effectively.
One thing I actually, actually favored about Borderlands 2 was, as you are going throughout Pandora, just about everybody you meet has been screwed over by Good-looking Jack in a way. Their life is measurably worse, or they’re below menace, or they know somebody who died due to Good-looking Jack. That was actually inspiring for the Timekeeper, for us to have the ability to present a villain, not simply by way of cellphone calls the place he says, ‘Hey, you are a dick,’ whilst you’re whilst you’re going by way of attempting to gather weapons, but additionally how everybody you meet has, in a way, been affected by him and resides below his totalitarian rule.
Their circumstances are totally different and vibrant and their reactions to the Timekeeper… like they could be so afraid of him that they do not wish to stand up in resistance in opposition to him, or they could be so pissed off at him that they do, or they’ve a sophisticated relationship with the Timekeeper after they as soon as type of appeared as much as him, however now they’re in hazard due to him. With the aim of constructing this character really feel slightly bit extra omnipresent, slightly bit at all times watching, we wished that to shine by way of in all of our NPCs. So, as we meet new buddies — and every of those zones has this large over boss that we’ve to, in the end, take care of, every of these villains has a unique relationship with the Timekeeper. As we’re studying about them, we’re additionally studying about him.
IGN: The Timekeeper will fall into place with that extra grounded narrative. He is much more simple. He isn’t calling you whilst you’re amassing weapons and telling you, ‘You are a dick.’
Clark: Not these particular phrases, no [laughs].
IGN: So, what’s it about this character particularly that makes him the subsequent nice Borderlands villain? What makes him stand aside?
Clark: I believe that he has a gravity and an ominousness. Jack’s animosity in direction of us is so sizzling and private, and the Timekeeper, in contrast, feels so omnipotent and inescapable. Jack simply seems like one type of gnat who’s actually influential however may very well be swatted away. The Timekeeper feels continual and insurmountable, like a mountain. This complete planet principally casts in his picture, and I believe that is a cool mountain to climb.
IGN: We’re just some weeks out from launch. Did the choice to modify up the tone for Borderlands 4 repay? Is Gearbox sitting right here saying, ‘This was value it. We dialed the whole lot accurately. We’re pleased with the place that is.’ Additionally, what had been a few of the challenges that the workforce confronted when adapting to this transformation?
Clark: I am personally pleased with the work that we have finished, and I believe it is paid off. I believe we struck a enjoyable, resonant steadiness between light-hearted moments and critical, resonant moments. We get, for the primary time, I believe, we get actual character depth with Claptrap, of all individuals, for instance. Considered one of my favourite missions in the sport is an emotional second with Claptrap that, I believe, actually hits arduous, so I am personally very pleased with the place we landed.
Joyce: I agree. I believe that we’ve succeeded with what we got down to do, and it’s much more than simply about tone. This was about creating the subsequent, proper? You may come to Borderlands 4 as a brand new participant, and this may be your first expertise into an extremely expansive world, and in that approach, it wanted to be contemporary and have one thing new to supply and alter perspective on our collection whereas nonetheless sustaining that connectivity. So, for those who’re a returning fan, we constructed Kairos for you. Should you’re a brand new fan, we constructed Kairos for you. This was the aim. It took a very large world and an enormous recreation to do it. I believe we succeeded there.
Winkler: I believe it will be, in the end, as much as the followers to the followers, in fact, to inform us if we nailed it or not, and I believe that the absolute best situation is that we put this recreation out, they are saying, ‘That is what we wished. Let’s go even additional. We would like extra. We would like extra.’ I hope we get that chance. To echo what Taylor and Lin mentioned, I’m very pleased with the work that we did, and I believe that we achieved our targets, and the mark of success if having the ability to proceed. Hopefully, we will proceed, we will construct again a few of the belief, and yeah. Have a superb one. Have a superb online game.
Michael Cripe is a contract author with IGN. He is finest identified for his work at websites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. You should definitely give him a observe on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).