Gearbox promises 60 fps in Borderlands 4, but confuses about balance

After the early announcement of the release of Borderlands 4, originally scheduled for the same window as GTA 6, but now set to arrive more than a week earlier, Gearbox Software revealed several updates during a presentation at State of Play — including changes to the loot system, adjustments to drop rates, and alterations to the functioning of loadouts. Amidst the excitement of the audience, the company's CEO, Randy Pitchford, ended up getting involved in yet another of his already traditional contradictory statements.

In response to a post on Twitter/X, where a fan expressed concerns about the performance and balancing of the game, Pitchford replied with a sentence that quickly went viral:

"F' balance. Make a sick build with some god drop loot and melt bosses. Be a legend."

The response caused strangeness not only because of its exaggerated tone, but also because it directly referred to recurring criticisms made to Gearbox since the release of Borderlands 3 in 2019, when the company was accused of frustrating players with a series of nerfs that undermined the creation of creative builds — exactly the opposite of what Pitchford now seems to be advocating.

Trying to soften the impact, the CEO revisited the subject in another tweet, where he explained that decisions about balancing are actually the responsibility of Graeme Timmins, the project's creative director:

"It is inevitable that, with so much loot and so many procedural combinations, drops that break the game will occur, not foreseen by it or not yet identified. I am eager to see how Graeme will deal with this."

"The case would have to be extremely rare and probably very strange for me to override his decision. I trust Graeme's fairness to be fair and quick, even if sometimes ruthless."

The statements make it clear that the game may receive balancing updates when necessary, directly contradicting the original "F balance" — all this in a span of about four hours.

Borderlands 4 promises to run at 60 frames per second, according to Pitchford, and bets on a significant overhaul to deal with the "Legendary weapons inflation" that marked the previous game. There is still no detailed information about the technical specifications required on consoles or PC, nor about the total number of weapons and possible combinations — although the franchise's history surpasses the millions thanks to the procedural generation system.

With the hype from the public and marketing intensifying, it remains to be seen if the ideas about creative freedom and balancing will, this time, be compatible with the reality of the game.