Randy Pitchford is confident that Borderlands 4 will surpass the metrics of the third installment

The franchise will soon return with Borderlands 4, and high hopes are pinned on the project.

Recently, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford took to social media once again. This time, he decided not to talk about the price of  Borderlands 4, but instead reflected on the franchise’s success.

The Gearbox team is confident in the future success of Borderlands 4 — Randy shared metrics from previous installments:

• Borderlands 2 — Average playtime: 13:42; Played more than 1 hour: 87%
• Borderlands 3 — Average playtime: 18:48; Played more than 1 hour: 92%

And commented:

“Time is "hours and minutes," not "minutes and seconds." 

Besides, I wouldn’t obsess over time — relativity is what matters. Averages aren’t great because they include people who launch but don’t play, and those who don’t launch. The 1,000+ hour gangs are averaged in as well. 

All of this is fine in the context of relativity, except that Borderlands 2 has the advantage of having been around much longer than Borderlands 3. 

So what matters is that Borderlands 3 seems to show, on average, more playtime than Borderlands 2.  Earlier, respondents to the poll seemed to think that actual playtime correlates better with quality than user reviews. 

Thus, one could argue that Borderlands 3 is "better" than Borderlands 2 by the standards chosen by the people who responded to my poll.

Obviously, people have different tastes, and entertainment is subjective.  We are all edge cases.  Most of the time I follow the crowd, but sometimes I like what others don’t, and sometimes I don’t prefer what others like. That’s why we still have artists and performers — we are all different, and our tastes evolve over time.

Either way, we are confident that Borderlands 4 will be better than Borderlands 3 across all metrics, including the subjective ones, so we can’t wait for launch!”

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Cover art author: Gearbox, 2K. Image source: store.steampowered.com