Randy Pitchford is the CEO of Gearbox Software, and not a lot of people are happy about him. Following the release of Borderlands 4, fans have been left with a bad taste due to alleged optimization issues for using Unreal Engine 5.
While Pitchford has dropped such claims and provided support through his official X channel, players took matters into their own hands by creating fixes. And thus begins the controversy, because the fixes are working better than expected. To give more insight into the matter, let’s get deeper into it.
Why Was Randy Pitchford Surrounded by Controversy After Borderlands 4‘s Release?
Borderlands 4 had a successful launch, and players are indeed enjoying themselves with it. However, a section of the community has been critical about certain issues, particularly the lack of a mini-map for the open world and scattered performance problems.
Most of the outrage is around alleged optimization issues with PC because people believe Unreal Engine 5 is the culprit. However, Randy Pitchford believes it’s the players’ PC, which is the problem, and not the game. The case is pretty much similar to Todd Howard’s statement for Starfield.
Every PC gamer must accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and what the software they are running is doing.
While Pitchford continues engaging with fans and dismissing optimization concerns, frustration within the community has been rising. Even certain mods have surfaced on the internet to help fix the game instead of relying on devs, mainly being Performance Optimizer and Ultimate Engine Tweaks. It’s claimed that using these has reduced stuttering and stabilized CPU and GPU usage.
The mod developers have also shared what is happening under the hood with these third-party fixes, but Gearbox Software hasn’t caught on. At the same time, Pitchford’s refusal to discuss mods directly, despite frequent community interactions, has only fueled further backlash.
As a matter of fact, Pitchford believes Borderlands 4 is perfect, and people need to get used to DLSS and other performance improvement tools within the game. The point being, Borderlands 4 is not a competitive shooter, so players can take advantage of the technology.
Use DLSS. It’s great. The game was built to take advantage of it. This is not a competitive FPS. And, I have been led to believe that in a blind test that humans cannot detect any input lag. In my own demonstrates and experiments, I believe this is true.
But on the other hand, not all performance-boosting mods show significant improvements after patching. Yet, they are highly upvoted because of the minor changes they bring. With this confusion hanging in the air, the controversy surrounding Randy Pitchford continues to grow with each passing day.
What Added Fuel to the Flame of Randy Pitchford’s Controversy With Borderlands 4?
Before all the performance issue drama around Borderlands 4, Randy Pitchford found himself in another controversy. It’s during the time when games were aimed to be priced at $80, towards which many have held disapproval. But instead of pacifying the situation, Pitchford just said:
If you’re a real fan, you’ll find a way to make it happen. My local game store had Starflight for Sega Genesis for $80 in 1991 when I was just out of high school working minimum wage at an ice cream parlor in Pismo Beach and I found a way to make it happen.
Statements like this rubbed fans the wrong way previously, before the release of Borderlands 4. Now, with so little time passed since then, players are even more enraged by his latest remarks.
That was everything you needed to know about the Randy Pitchford controversy. Are you facing any issues with Borderlands 4? Share with us in the comments below.
