Gearbox boss says Borderlands 4 day-one patch 'does a lot' but warns that players should have 'realistic' expectations about performance: 'Older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance'
Borderlands 4 is now just a few days away—here's the full rundown of global release times—and Randy Pitchford has confirmed, in what should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone, that there will be a day one patch. It "does a lot," the Gearbox boss promised, but it's not going to work miracles, and he said players with low-end PCs should have "realistic expectations" for how the game will run on their rigs.
"The expectation for using a below min-spec machine should be that the game is unplayable," Pitchford said on X in response to a player of a preview build who was struggling with performance.
"It's a big, bold, new, seamless world, and I'm sorry to say that older hardware may not provide buttery smooth performance for the latest gen AAA games, as has always been the case since the dawn of PC gaming."
That little note of always has been at the end of the reply comes off, to my reading at least, as just a tad defensive: Maybe it's your fault Borderlands 4 doesn't run well on your PC because you've been limping along with a craptastic potato for way too many years.
It's also a hard truth. I remember feeling indignant and outraged (and resigned to being poor for the rest of my life) on learning that this game or that required a hard drive, or a 386 CPU. Ridiculous! But, yes, it is the way of PC gaming: You invest ridiculous amounts of money in the new hotness, and sooner or later it's old and busted, and you're right back to square one, wondering how much more time you can squeeze out of your creaking GPU before you really have to do something.
Shortly after that message went up, Pitchford copped to possibly "conflating 'recommended' specs with 'required' specs," and said 2K quality assurance is "able to achieve 60fps average with minimum spec PC on typically medium settings."
"Different PC configurations will vary. HDD vs SDD is also a factor for the hitching," Pitchford wrote. "And, yes, Day 1 patch has some key improvements and optimizations.
"I just want everyone to have realistic expectations for performance. This is a big, open AAA game and lower-end and older hardware may not perform as well as higher-end, modern PCs."
It never hurts to manage expectations ahead of a major game launch, but that's just good advice. Trying to skooch through on a big new game with an old wheezing PC always carries a certain amount of risk, and while there's typically a little bit of play in the numbers, there's a reason the minimum system requirement is called minimum: If you try to undercut it, you are probably—at best—not going to have an optimal experience.
Borderlands 4, as noted above, arrives on September 11. If you're eager to play but among those who've been limping along with a craptastic potato for way too many years, perhaps this would be a good time to have a look at our rundowns of the best gaming PCs at various price points, or—if you prefer a more hands-on approach—a trio of DIY gaming PC builds at budget, mid-range, and high-end price points.