Borderlands 4: Estimated $200M Budget, So Why All The Bugs?

“I don’t get it. How does my performance drop with each new update?” claims an X user. “Your game is literally unplayable on PS5 after a couple of hours. You’ve released two patches now for PC and nothing for consoles. Fix your game.” replies another. This is quite prevalent in this thread; the console side of things is seemingly getting the crap end of the stick.

As stated in the introduction, when you have a huge game such as this, bugs are bound to appear. With multiple sources claiming a development budget of over twice that of the previous installment, suggesting a staggering budget of $200 – $300 million, it becomes less acceptable for a game with that much funding to have so many issues upon launch.

To be clear, this is NOT to reflect negatively on those who actively work on the game. Their jobs are foundational to ensure these games are even technically playable, and the fact that these games can even exist in this day and age is a testament to the incredible work these people do. But with all that aside, there are glaring issues that these companies actively try to distract you from, and if this trend continues, it sets a precedent that will only make players lose faith in these massive games.

The Ugly

While at times, the funny bugs and glitches people share online can be entertaining, like that of a Reddit user discovering their vault hunter suspiciously losing their pants, it’s important to note the broader discussion here. You buy a game with your own hard-earned money, and the game itself has had hundreds of millions of dollars poured into it. Is it really a tough ask to make sure the game is as reasonably polished as it can be BEFORE launching?

This trickles into the discussion that these so-called “AAA” developers and publishers are becoming increasingly lazy in their approach. With incredible technological advancements in the last decade allowing us to create vast worlds beyond what we could have previously imagined, it’s unfortunate that with the advent of post-release updates, they are being relied upon more and more. This trend perpetuates the idea that it’s not as important to ensure the title is “Ready” when they can just “Fix it later”.

Ask any self-respecting gamer and you are guaranteed to hear the sentiment of “I’d rather wait for a polished game than something that was clearly rushed.” most of the time. Now, it’s important that if there are delays of this nature, the promises of a more finished product actually deliver (Remember Cyberpunk 2077?).

Imagine buying a car that had an A/C issue that’s internally known and relatively easy to fix. But the line is released anyway, and you have, say, 1,000 people who complain about these issues. Sure, the company fixing it for free is a good thing, but the inconvenience factor and the clear preference of profit versus consumer satisfaction is a slippery slope that will only get worse if nothing is said.

Do Better, Seriously

While this article only lightly touched upon the issues present in Borderlands 4, it’s important to recognize the bigger picture here: While not the biggest problem the gaming industry faces amidst more shady practices and blatant corporate greed, it’s curious to see the rapid rise in popularity of smaller indie games. It’s almost as though people loving a project and caring about the players’ experience makes the game better. What a concept!

And how are the big companies responding? By trying to downplay these titles and even going as far as claiming they’re actively harming the industry.

While I generally avoid buying games upon release for this exact reason, I will still be purchasing the game when I can, and hopefully, the major bugs and performance issues will be resolved. 30 BILLION guns? Count me in!