Borderlands 4 Switch 2 Development Paused, According To Take-Two

Wouldn't be shocked if they axe it.

I'm hearing it's because they are moving resources to the Switch version of GTA6 so it launches close to the other versions

That would suck. Borderland 3 is still not compatible with Switch 2 and now this…

Well it seemed to be very middle of the road, I havent played a borderlands game in ages but I'm also not craving it. If it comes it comes, shrug emoji yawn emoji period

That’s pretty wild. I imagine Gearbox does eventually will go back to finishing this game, only because Borderlands are typically not afraid to release far later in the future, much like the Borderlands 2 Vita/VR ports, and the Borderlands 3 Switch port. Maybe Nintendo Shiver can offer assistance, given their history with 2K.

This almost sounds like an Aliens Colonial Marines situation again. Game by Gearbox is announced for a Nintendo platform to be released soon after initial launch and is said to be close to other versions, said versions launch and have a multitude of issues, Nintendo version is delayed only to vanish into the ether

I am shocked, SHOCKED I say that Gearbox can’t get this done. I mean, B4 barely runs on PC and PS5…

Bummer. This would have been my first real Borderlands game. I played 1 & 2 briefly as a teen when they first released, but I never stayed with them. I suppose I could check it out on the PS5, but I’d much prefer portable play.

@dskatter runs great on ps5, not sure what you are talking about

Oh yeah, just remembered how this was going to be a thing. I actually forgot about Borderlands 4 entirely, one of those games that just sort of showed up without me desiring it and I never thought about it since.

Not really surprised, the game bombed.

@DominionGamma

Uh, I play it on PS5 Pro. Saying it runs great is well, very generous.

@Fighting_Game_Loser Thank you for reminding me why I played that game. It looked good and I was excited for it to come to the Wii U, then it was so bad I had to try it and they weren't kidding. Also the most insane part is that its an alright game if you properly end a single line of code, cause that code controlled the alien AI. There wasn't a fix like that for poor ol' Duke Nukem...

@Automated_Unit_4937 Hell yeah! I'm putting my money on this, as well.

The fact that even an entertainment centered site like Variety is covering this just shows how scandalous a story like this can be. This is hard to believe, but there is some hindsight about this announcement.
I know the game is very demanding and can only run on 720p and 30fps on Series S, but this game was actually running at some point on the hardware, docked at least. And while there were drops, these were evident only on a specific moment. In fact, even off-screen, the game looked pretty decent docked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ulp2LxEs4

However, image quality was found to be pretty blurry, either lower or on the same level as Series S, which led to many questions about how it would run on the less capable handheld mode.

Well turns out, that's very likely the main challenge with this port. I suppose they actually got it running docked, but without the optimization knowledge they seemingly pushed it to some kind of limit to the point they couldn't make an acceptable handheld mode version.

And here's the interesting part: not coincidentally, a Steam Deck verified conversion was released last December, which proves this game can indeed run on handheld.
However, after it previously couldn't run even on the lowest settings, this mode has downscaled the visuals even below the lowest preset to something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdJ4DXRNTuc

I have a theory, and this mode is actually how the Switch 2 version looked when handheld, but they simply didn't want to downscale the visuals to such levels, and now they're stuck between keeping the visual fidelity and mantaining performance, apparently...
Not to mention, the metrics prove this is a very CPU-bound game, and I wonder if the console has enough of that to keep the tasks doable.

The thing is, I don't wanna believe this will never come to Switch 2. Nintendo themselves promised it on the Switch 2 Direct, Gearbox themselves made that promise during their Creator's Voice! Didn't they call the system "empowering" and even said how they weren't "fighting" it? How Borderlands 4 would indeed be running on the hardware and even promised they were making it simultaneously?
Even with the reasons adobe, there was a lot certainity and even boldness during the pre-release. It surely couldn't be just marketing, right?

As long as that video is online, there will at least be some indication the game is still coming to Switch 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdMBChercPY

Future physical cartridge with all updates on it?

@kalosn That's a good point! I'm sure they will at least make an extra effort to get it on Switch 2, assuming they can. But why would they announce it and work on it if it was really that bad? I guess some people do that. I dunno.

This stinks. I hope it comes back.

Like I said elsewhere, no hurry, but hopefully no Steep scenario either.

With the Switch 2's CPU limitations, there are just some AAA games like this that aren't going to get to that acceptable base 30fps level.

Welp. Saw that coming.

Nintendo consoles are never going to be taken seriously by devs until they’re on a par with or, heaven forfend, ahead of the rest.