PAX East is full of surprises and amazing announcements. The last one comes from Gearbox: they have confirmed that there will be a Borderlands 3 in the future. They only need to wrap up Battleborn and all its DLC.
Gearbox confirmed yesterday what a lot of us where wishing. In a panel during PAX East Gearbox CEO and president Randy Pitchford officially announced that there is a Borderlands 3 in the works. “It’s no secret, obviously there is going to be another Borderlands”, he said. However, they are not thinking in how to name the creature yet. “We don’t even know if we’re going to call it that. We could call it Borderlands 4 for all we know.”
The new Borderlands will start its development once the studio wraps up all production related to Battleborn, including its DLC. Its art director, Scott Kester, will move then to the same position in the Borderlands team. Mikey Neumann, Gearbox chief creative and the voice behind the iconic Scooter character, will be writing it. He even joked about a new character that may or not may happen in Borderlands 3: Scooper, son of Scooter. “I did this whole Scooter thing, then I pitch-shifted it up like seven semitones so it sounds like a chipmunk and it was the funniest thing I’d ever heard”, he joked when asked about it.
Apart from the confirmation of these details (chipmunk-voice character included), there is nothing else settled. There is no release date, no information about possible stories or the platforms the game will work on. However, Gearbox announcement reassures us on the continuation of this amazing franchise. Get those Vault Hunter suits going!
The Borderlands Series
Up until now, the Borderlands world has generated more games than you probably know. The original Borderlands was released back in 2009 and already transported us to the core elements of the game: the first-person shooter gameplay with RPG elements, the whole struggle for power and richness of the Vault Hunters over the surface of planet Pandora and the offbeat humor, of course.
Three years later, Borderlands 2 appeared, picking up the setting and gameplay mechanics of its predecessor. However, it resulted in even better sales and reviews worldwide, making the Borderlands franchise a very solid one. To fill in the story gap between the two, 2K Australia developed and launched Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! in 2013, which included new mechanics and characters. It was a nice addition to the lore of the series – yet less successful.
Apart from those, the series has been nurtured with three spin-offs. Borderlands Legends was released for iOS devices to coincide with the launch of Borderlands 2. The RPG elements were turned into strategic bits and the view was transformed into a top-down perspective. A more famous title is Tales from the Borderlands, which was developed by Telltale Games between 2014 and 2015. As usual, they decided to focus in the story and characters, bringing back some old good folks from the Borderlands games and delivering its quirky humor and gunplay mechanics. For some, it remains the best Telltale title to date.
Last but not least, 2K China and Gearbox Software tried their best to ship a China-exclusive online shooter game called Borderlands Online. However, this project never saw the light and was finally cancelled when 2K China was closed due to “profitability concerns”.
Apart from that, there are also Borderland comics, books and even a film in the works, courtesy of Lionsgate. The universe is expanding and there seems to be no end to it.
And you? Which Borderlands game is your favorite and why? Let us know in the comment section down below!
[Source: EuroGamer]
