14 DAY TRIAL // Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford has confirmed just why the new Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will not appear on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, saying that, so far, the two consoles haven't sold enough units to justify making a game for it.
Borderlands 1 and 2 amazed tens of millions of gamers around the world in recent years, delivering addictive first-person shooter experiences that fueled the urge for better loot and guns using many mechanics seen in role-playing dungeon crawlers.
Now, a third title is coming soon, in the form of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, which acts as a bridge between Borderlands 1 and 2 and features new classes, a new story, and a fresh setting.
It will share the same platforms, however, with the old games, as it's going to debut for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
According to Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford, who talked with Eurogamer, this decision was made due to the large install base of the two last-gen consoles, as opposed to the current-gen ones.
"It's not free to build a game for next-gen," Pitchford said about the new project. "So when we decide where to spend our resources, we want to spend all of the attention we can on the game itself.
"If you try to image the set of Borderlands players who have already upgraded, that's not 100 per cent. But if you try to image the set of Xbox One or PS4 owners who do not have an Xbox 360 or a PS3, the difference there is so close to nil you can't make a business rationalization around that."
Pitchford then emphasized that there's a lot of desire for new Borderlands content on the last-gen consoles and on PC, and, at least for a few more years, the PS4 and Xbox One aren't going to be able to match it.
"I don't think I would have to stretch far to suggest there's probably a lot of demand for more Borderlands. That demand lives on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. We don't know to what extent it'll live on the next-gen. I imagine over time - maybe by the time we get to the third or fourth Christmas - there will be enough of an install base."
To put things into perspective, Pitchford added that, when you combine the total sales of PS4 and Xbox One, it doesn't even reach the total number of Borderlands 2 copies sold worldwide.
As such, don't expect the Pre-Sequel to appear on PS4 or Xbox One.