Randy Pitchford is at it again. Borderlands 4’s PC port is getting torn apart by players for being a technical disaster. Even gamers with RTX 4090s and 5090s struggle to get decent frame rates on ultra settings. At 1440p ultra, only the newest GPUs hold 60fps. At 4K, the game’s frame rate tanks across the board. Unreal Engine 5 is notoriously difficult to optimize for open worlds, but Borderlands 4 seems particularly taxing.
Gearbox released a guide from Nvidia on how to optimize the game based on your GPU. While their suggestions help somewhat, players are annoyed at having to upscale a game that should’ve been optimized properly.
Randy vs. The Players
Faced with growing complaints, Randy fired back at players on social media. “Code your own engine and show us how it’s done,” he said in one tweet.
He doubled down by calling Borderlands 4 a “premium game made for premium gamers.” He argued that PC players should set “realistic expectations” instead of trying to max out settings their hardware can’t handle. His advice boiled down to stop being “4K stubborn,” use DLSS, or just play at lower resolutions.
He didn’t stop there. He compared people trying to run the game on outdated hardware to “driving a monster truck with a leaf blower’s motor.” He even told players they could always “use the refund feature on Steam.”
Randy’s biggest problem is that he doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut. Every time Gearbox finds itself in some kind of scandal, Randy always comes out of the woodwork to make things worse. He’s either addicted to the attention his antics give him or he’s completely oblivious to how much damage his opinions inflicts onto his company.
Comparing Randy’s Outburst to Battlefield 6
Contrast this with how the Battlefield 6 devs handled their own technical challenges. They made sure their game could run smoothly even on older hardware. They prioritized accessibility for as many players as possible. They were praised for being inclusive and technically stable at launch.
Everyone agrees that a smooth performance is important. Not everyone agrees on how to handle a crisis. Randy’s solution is to inflame rather than fix.
Excuses vs. Reality
Pitchford has defended Gearbox’s approach by pointing to numbers. About 1% of installs generated support tickets, with performance issues making up a fraction of those. He insists Borderlands 4 is “pretty damn optimal” given the complexity of modern PC gaming.
The problem is that none of this matches player experience. Borderlands 4 is plagued by shader hitches, poor optimization in Unreal Engine 5, crashes, wild inconsistencies across hardware setups. For a game that doesn’t push visual boundaries, the system requirements feel excessive, if not absurd.
The PC gaming landscape is unforgiving. Players want choice, flexibility, and performance that scales. They don’t want to be told their $2,000 rigs aren’t good enough or mocked for wanting 4K performance. Gearbox is fighting against a market expectation that big-budget games should work across a wide range of hardware. With a spokesperson who seems determined to pick fights instead of win trust.
Randy Pitchford’s mouth runs faster than Borderlands 4 does on most PCs. Until he learns how to shut up and let the developers quietly fix the game’s problems, Gearbox is going to keep paying the price.
