Randy Pitchford says Borderlands 4 is “bigger, better, new” — including its humour

And from what I've played, Randy Pitchford is telling the truth.

I’ll admit it: I didn’t believe Randy Pitchford when he told me that Borderlands 4 was being moved up the release calendar because it was ready to go. Like most others, I believed this latest Borderlands sequel was doing everything it could to get out of the way of Grand Theft Auto 6.

“Everybody was like, ‘you’re a liar’,” Pitchford told me last month in Sydney, weeks after the Borderlands 4 release date change and a larger PlayStation State of Play event. “And I swear to f*cking God, I had no idea when that game would ship. None of it had anything to do with what we were going through; it was so weird.”

So when Randy Pitchford told me that Borderlands 4 was “a lot of bigger, better, new” at the same time, I was a little more inclined to believe him. And now, after three hours of hands-on time with Borderlands 4, I certainly do.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the Borderlands franchise. The granddaddy of all looter shooters, I applaud its unique visual style, a solid and satisfying gameplay loop, and world building that’s lead to amazing narrative spin-offs in Tales from the Borderlands.

And then there’s Claptrap.

I don’t like Claptrap, and tend to shoulder the poor robot with a larger sense of humour that I find more irritating than funny. With all this in mind, I was paying close attention to toilet humour — or, hopefully, a lack thereof — as I played. The focus seemed justified when a dot point on Gearbox’s slide deck referenced Borderlands 4‘s “dry and grounded humour” as a selling point.

“I didn’t write that [point],” Pitchford told me. “I’m like, ‘skip that slide’.” 

I believe him there, too.

“Borderlands isn’t even a place,” he continued. “Borderlands is a space between things that don’t belong — the borderland between A and B — and in addition to being the borderland between a shooter and an RPG, the borderland between a science fiction thing and a western, the borderland between surrealism and realism with the art direction; we’ve also thread the needle between drama and comedy. The centre line’s always been serious business, where their stakes are real to the characters.

“But on the comedy side… it’s really about throughput,” Pitchford said. “When you’re doing that kind of stuff, not every joke lands; [you’re] machine gunning. Whereas, in this one, what if instead of just ‘everybody make whatever fart drugs you want to make’ —  because that’s part of our culture, too — this time is organised a little more, and curated. We’ve put who we all agree are our funniest people on that kind of stuff.”

Spending two of my three hours in a section of Borderlands 4 that involves Claptrap — and believe you me, I made a beeline to the character to hear what he had to say — I can confirm that Claptrap is far less grating and actually, truly funny. As Borderlands 4 has promised an evolution of co-op systems and a refined loot path, the same can be said for its sense of humour. 

Things feel… sensible. More mature. And while I’m specifically referencing comedy, the same shows across the board from the snippet I was able to play through.

“When you play a Borderlands, all of us are in the build; you can feel the creators,” Pitchford told me. “We’re all just having fun — we’re all goofballs and some of us are idiots, but we’re all in there and doing it.”

Saying that he’s always learning and always “getting better at making video games,” Pitchford confessed that, “if you do a machine gun [approach to comedy], there’s a certain point where nothing’s funny anymore.

“It’s got to be measured and varied, and I think you’ll feel that this time around — it’s certainly better than we’ve ever done that before, because there’s intention there instead of just a free-for-all.”

Expect Borderlands 4 from 12 September on Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, alongside Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5.

Borderlands 4 12 September 2025, 3 October 2025 (Switch 2) PC PS5 Switch 2 Xbox Series S & X   Buy on Windows PC: Steam Buy on Xbox: Microsoft Store, Amazon Buy on PlayStation: PlayStation Store, Amazon Buy on Switch: Nintendo eShop