The community began to express dissatisfaction even before the release, largely due to Pitchford's controversial statements. He claimed that the game was worth buying even for $350, which many fans found strange and out of touch with reality. Against this background, technical problems, especially on consoles, exacerbated the negativity, although the developer refused to acknowledge them.
Two weeks before launch, Pitchford publicly stated that Borderlands 4 runs "perfectly smoothly" on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and the version for Series S is also "quite stable." The user gaming experience turned out to be completely the opposite.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that the CEO recommended that players with problems simply return the game. Despite this, Borderlands 4 has reportedly sold over 2 million copies in its first week. The scandal shows that the problem is not with Unreal Engine 5, but with late optimization.