Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford has declared, “We suck” following the launch of the studio’s latest game, Borderlands 4. Why does he believe that? In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Pitchford said Gearbox’s mission is “to entertain the world,” and the company is only currently reaching a small piece of the pie.
“There are billions of people in the world. We got a lot of work to do. We’re gonna cross probably 100 million units sold, with Borderlands 4, of the franchise. That’s awesome compared to a lot of things. But it kinda sucks if your goal is to entertain the world. So I feel like we’re just getting started,” he said, as reported by IGN.
Pitchford said that now, in 2025, Gearbox is finally “starting to get pretty good” at making Borderlands games after nearly 20 years. “It feels like we’re starting to figure it out. I feel like we’ve probed a lot of the end points. But I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of a journey,” he said.
The latest data reveals that more than 94 million copies of Borderlands games have been sold, so Borderlands 4 would have to hit 6 million to push the franchise past 100 million.
Borderlands 3 sold more than 23 million copies and is 2K’s fastest-selling game ever. The top-selling game of all time for 2K is Borderlands 2, which has achieved sales of more than 30 million units. No sales data for Borderlands 4 has been announced as of yet.
Also in the BBC interview, Pitchford said other studios in the looter-shooter space have failed to compete with Borderlands on a level that he expected them to by this point.
“If other game designers that were trying to get in on the action, so to speak, understood that, we’d have more competitors, or we’d have good competitors,” he said. “But we haven’t so far. It’s weird. The kinds of people that just want to go after it, they’re not thinking about it on that level. They’re just putting into motion something because of market analysis. It’s not a designer’s or creator’s drive that’s doing it. It’s either a business drive or a wishing to be something that you’re not kind of drive.”
Pitchford said he “fully expected” after the original Borderlands came out in 2009 that “everyone would be hip to” jumping into the looter-shooter market and that there would be “lots of other games imitating and aping.” But, in Pitchford’s eyes, this didn’t come to bear on the level he imagined.
There have indeed been many other looter-shooter games that have come to market after Borderlands, including Destiny and The Division, and each has left their own stamp on the market.
Pitchford is known for making eye-catching comments. Before this, he said “real fans” would find a way to buy Borderlands 4 if it were priced at $80 (which it was not). After Borderlands 4 launched, Pitchford mixed it up with fans about the game’s technical issues, saying people were being “4K stubborn” and that they should get a refund if they’re not happy.
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