LogInCEO Strauss Zelnick attributed the game's "softer" launch to performance issues on PC.
During the recent Take-Two Interactive investor presentation, CEO Strauss Zelnick shed some light on how well Borderlands 4 was received by the gaming community, revealing that Gearbox's latest looter-shooter underperformed against the company's launch sales expectations.
Gearbox
As stated by Zelnick (via GamesRadar+), the release was "a bit softer" than Take-Two – the parent company of Borderlands 4 publisher 2K, which in turn owns Gearbox – had anticipated, citing performance issues on PC, which were highlighted by the community even before the game was officially launched, as the main factor behind it.
Nevertheless, the CEO expressed confidence that the game will ultimately achieve strong lifetime sales, noting that Gearbox has been working to better optimize Borderlands 4's PC version through post-launch updates, and added that Take-Two is "immensely proud of Gearbox."
"Gearbox has been addressing the PC challenges. And I think in retrospect, we feel that there are things that we could have done better, but we intend to do better in the future," the CEO said. "In the fullness of time, we think the unit sales on this title will be very solid, and the economic results will be in line with our expectations."
At present, there hasn't been any official announcement regarding how well the game has sold, making it difficult to attach concrete numbers to Zelnick's optimism.
While some reports claimed that Borderlands 4 achieved the highest launch-month dollar sales in the franchise's history and reached 2.5 million players within its first two weeks, others cited the 20% discount applied a month after release as a sign of underperformance. That said, with the game currently sitting at a disappointing 4.5/10 score on Metacritic, it seems that even if Borderlands 4 sold well, most players weren't particularly satisfied with their purchase.
Don't forget to subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our new Discord server, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, and Threads, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.