‘Borderlands 4’ boss hits back at negative reviews: “We made an amazing game”

Borderlands 4 boss Randy Pitchford has hit back at negative reviews about the recently-released sequel. 

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Borderlands 4 launched last week and despite being a hit with critics, a number of fans have left negative reviews about the game over issues with performance, graphics and bugs. The long-awaited follow-up to Borderlands 3 has a “generally favourable” score of 84 out of 100 on Metacritic but has a “mixed” review score on Steam.

Taking to X, Gearbox CEO Pitchford wrote: “Every PC gamer must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing. We have made an amazing and fun and huge looter shooter campaign game. The game is pretty damn optimal – which means that the software is doing what we want without wasteful cycles on bad processes.”

He went on to say that it’s a “mistake” to expect that “PCs between minimum specification and recommended specification can achieve all of extremely high frame rate, maximum/ultra features, and extremely high resolution,” and it’s up to players to adjust their settings.

this has got to be the most tone deaf, out of touch, dismissive CEO i’ve ever seen
somehow worse then bungie in a sense lmao@GearboxOfficial @DuvalMagic get your shit together https://t.co/CvPJBVkUZn

— Jakey :3 (@JakenJ_) September 15, 2025

“If you aren’t happy, please tune to your preferences using the tools available to you,” he added. “If that last post makes you have a negative reaction, I bet you have emotions and expectations that you feel aren’t sufficiently attended to. I’m sorry. But please accept that the game is doing a lot.”

He confirmed that the team are currently working on “a few real issues” affecting a “very, very small percentage of users” and encouraged people to keep playing, despite their issues with the game’s optimisation. “The more people that play, the more data we get and the easier it is to keep making improvements.”

Over the weekend, he called Borderlands 4 “a premium game made for premium gamers” and shouldn’t be expected to run on older computers. “If you’re trying to drive a monster truck with a leaf blower’s motor, you’re going to be disappointed.”

The minimum and recommended specs are published. The most common hardware is a four year old cell phone. Borderlands 4 is a premium game made for premium gamers. Just as Borderlands 4 cannot run on a PlayStation 4, it cannot be expected to run on too-old PC hardware. Unlike on…

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025

“Man, this is like a fever dream. Imagine gaslighting paying customers when the performance is straight-up garbage,” replied one fan. “You are not helping your game with this. All you are doing right now is telling (potential) customers ‘shut up, you are wrong’,” said another.“I am begging you to stop tweeting,” wrote a third. 

Earlier this year, Pitchford annoyed gamers by suggesting “real fans” would find a way to pay whatever Take-Two charged for Borderlands 4.

In other news, one of the Hollow Knight: Silksong bosses is a tribute to a young fan who passed away from cancer.

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