“Borderlands 4 Is a Premium Game for Premium Gamers”: Gearbox Boss Responds to PC Players’ Complaints About Optimization, Suggests Writing Their Own Engine
Diana Golenko
The launch of Borderlands 4 was hit with review-bombing from PC players frustrated by poor optimization and the high system requirements of the looter-shooter. Gearbox Software head Randy Pitchford offered a rather unconventional response to fans’ complaints.
While participating in a discussion about technical issues and graphics settings, Pitchford said that Borderlands 4 is a “premium game” made for those who can afford high-end hardware, since the project fully utilizes the power of modern systems. He even suggested that upset owners of decade-old PCs should simply request a refund on Steam:
The minimum and recommended specs are published. The most common hardware is a four year old cell phone. Borderlands 4 is a premium game made for premium gamers. Just as Borderlands 4 cannot run on a PlayStation 4, it cannot be expected to run on too-old PC hardware. Unlike on…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025
In response to another user’s criticism of his advice to use DLSS to boost FPS, Pitchford replied with sarcasm:
Code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please. We will be your customer when you pull it off. The people doing it now are clearly dumb and don’t know what they’re doing and all the support and recommendations and code and architecture from the world’s greatest hardware…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025
Despite optimization issues, Borderlands 4’s concurrent player count on Steam surpassed 300,000 yesterday. Meanwhile, the shooter has already received its first patch aimed at improving technical performance. The game has also been compared with previous installments in terms of graphics quality, physics, and other aspects.
