Gearbox Software has a promising future on next-gen consoles. It's getting a lot of attention for Godfall, a looter-slasher RPG that hopes to offer a high-stakes fantasy adventure in a detailed, fantastical world. Considering all the attention that Godfall has gotten as Sony's events as a PlayStation exclusive, it's clear that there's a lot of optimism going around about the game. However, Gearbox has another looter that seems like it really belongs on next-gen consoles, considering it was a highly anticipated title for PC and the last generation's consoles. Any Gearbox fan knows that that missing looter is Borderlands 3.
Although Gearbox has played a part in a fair share of high profile franchises like Half-Life and Brothers in Arms, nowadays most players would probably agree that Borderlands is their biggest touchstone when it comes to Gearbox's work. The irreverent sci-fi adventures of Borderlands are famous for offering nonstop action and plenty of loot opportunities. Borderlands 3 was a great success for Gearbox; it's getting plenty of expansions after its release. Since it's clear that Gearbox is continuing to put work into the game, it seems almost inevitable that Gearbox will look into porting the game to PS5 and Xbox Series X.
The Success of Borderlands
Borderlands is a tremendously successful series and Gearbox knows it. Ever since it came out with the first game in 2009, it's never strayed far from the franchise, which has expanded into a lot of titles and spin-off content. There are four games in the main series, with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel releasing in between Borderlands 2 and 3, and lots of side games. For instance, Gearbox collaborated with Telltale Games to make the episodic Tales from the Borderlands.
All this is to say that Gearbox knows Borderlands is a great success and hasn't stopped pushing it ever since the series began. It's only gotten more popular, considering that Borderlands 3 broke records for the series by selling five million copies at launch. Between Gearbox knowing it has a major money-maker on its hands and already having a stake in the next generation via Godfall, Borderlands 3 seems like it would do great on these consoles. Some might think that the two games would compete with one another, belonging to similar genres, but considering how different the games are in mechanics, setting, theme, and tone, they probably wouldn't get in one another's way.
Setting Up For A Port
There's a little extra evidence that Gearbox might have a port on its mind: it just did a port this year. Switch users got Borderlands: Legendary Collection on their console back in may, enabling them to play the first three games in the series. In a way, this might have been Gearbox testing the viability of ports. Admittedly, bringing back older games in the series is a little different from putting a pretty new game on a new console. At the very least, Legendary Collection proves that Gearbox is open to ports and has some recent practice executing them.
Gearbox will have to think a little bit about how to execute a port -- for instance, it might wait a couple years to release all the DLCs it wants for Borderlands 3. That way it could release a sort of Ultimate Edition with all the DLCs included. If not, there's nothing stopping Gearbox from simply porting the game and selling the DLCs for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions. Although it probably won't be a launch title considering how close the console launches are, there's still the distinct likelihood that Borderlands 3 will be available for next-gen players. With all the attention the consoles are getting, players would surely be excited to get their hands on a fresh version of a Borderlands game.
Borderlands 3 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.