Gearbox is gearing up for a big announcement at E3 - is it Borderlands 3?
If you’re one of many who've sunk hundreds of hours into the insane mayhem of Pandora, then have we got news for you.
Borderlands publisher 2K Games has released their most recent financial earnings report, and buried in the corporate shmoozing is a juicy tidbit on an upcoming title:
“Looking ahead to fiscal 2019, we expect to deliver both record Net Sales and record net cash provided by operating activities, in excess of $2.5 billion and $700 million, respectively, led by the launches of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 and a highly anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises.”
Could this highly anticipated title be referring to Borderlands 3? Let’s break down some of the year’s past signals.
First there was PAX East 2016. Back then, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford had stated that work on Borderlands 3 would begin only after their most recent title, Battleborn, was completely done. Some would argue that Battleborn was done quite some time ago, with a dismal peak player count of 12,000 just after its launch back in May 2016. Since then it has been a consistent underperformer despite numerous sales and free weekends, so it makes sense that Gearbox would be looking to refill their coffers with another Borderlands game.
Then at the most recent Game Developers Conference, Pitchford took center stage during the Unreal Engine presentation to show some distinctly Borderlands-esque gameplay footage. Randy was sure to use ambiguous language to imply the renderings seen “may or may not” make it into a “future Gearbox game”, but come on, man. If that’s not the distinct art style of Borderlands then colour me cell shaded and leave me in the desert to be eaten by rakks.
Now with the 2K earnings report it seems almost certain that a Borderlands 3 announcement is just waiting to happen. With E3’s June weekend fast approaching, could we be in store for a “highly anticipated new title from one of 2K’s biggest franchises”? We are no magic eight ball, but all signs point to a pretty solid “yes”.
In the meantime, if you’re jonesing for some whacky space adventures with shoot ‘n loot action, check out Borderlands: The Pre Sequel available now in the latest Humble Bundle.