If you haven’t been paying attention to Borderlands 4’s launch, honestly, I don’t blame you. But Randy Pitchford, the CEO of Gearbox Software, has been having what can only be described as a meltdown on X (formerly Twitter) over the past few days.
He’s been lashing out at players over the game’s performance issues, which are affecting everything from low-end PCs to high-end rigs. In typical Randy fashion, he’s done everything except admit to poor optimization. Instead, he’s blamed the fans for expecting too much, while also suggesting people should have spent thousands on the latest GPU and CPU — which, as many have pointed out, still isn’t enough to run the game smoothly.
While most of the backlash has come from the PC community, the same problems are showing up on Xbox. But just how bad is it on Xbox?
Memory leaks and brutal frame drops on Xbox
Credit: @IcyAura97 on X (Formerly Twitter) of how bad the performance can get on Xbox.
Gaining over 2,000 likes on X (formerly Twitter), user @IcyAura97 shared a clip of Borderlands 4 showing intense stuttering and severe frame drops during combat. In some moments, the game even comes to a complete stop.
The clip has since been retweeted by @EpicNNG, a prominent Borderlands content creator, in the hope of drawing the developers’ attention to the issue.
The issues appear on both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, with players noting that performance gets noticeably worse the longer a play session lasts. Restarting the game does temporarily improve performance.
Many players believe this is caused by a memory leak, which happens when a game uses RAM but doesn’t release it back to the system when it’s no longer needed. Over time, this leaves less free memory available and gradually slows the game down.
While restarting the game does temporarily help, some players have also found success by switching to local mode in the lobby settings. Combining this with restarting the game every couple of hours or so seems to reduce many of the performance problems on console until Gearbox Software officially addresses the issue.
Inside Games also noted that Borderlands 4 suffers from lag, slowdowns, choppy textures, and severe memory leaks on both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/Xbox Series S. It raises the question of how the game will perform on the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2, which Gearbox Software has claimed will have feature parity with the PS5 and Xbox Series versions.
Missing features are frustrating Xbox players
Another major issue with the console version of Borderlands 4 is the lack of a field of view (FOV) slider. It’s something the team says it’s working on, but right now, it makes the console version feel far more cramped than on PC. The default view places your gun so close to the camera that it feels similar to aiming down sights on PC, even when you’re just holding your weapon normally.
A FOV slider is one of the most requested features from players, and it’s reportedly being explored. Another missing option is a motion blur toggle, which is something I always turn off in every game. Its absence makes the experience far less comfortable, especially during fast-paced combat.
It’s strange to see these two features missing when they’ve become standard in most modern shooters, so hopefully they won’t take long to be added.
Gearbox is exploring FOV Sliders on Consoles
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It’s not all awful news for console fans. The official X account for Borderlands 4 released a statement:
“Vault Hunters! We have heard your feedback on FOV (Field of View) sliders on console. The team is currently exploring how to bring these sliders to both Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions. We will continue to read your feedback & prioritize game updates with your experience in mind. Thanks all!”
It’s a welcome change to see the team acknowledge a requested feature after Randy Pitchford’s meltdown on X. I can’t help but feel there would be far more excitement around the game if he had simply said they hear the complaints and are working to fix them, instead of launching into a tirade against players — something that likely contributed to its current Mixed reviews on Steam.
Borderlands 4 Deserves Better Than This
It’s been well covered here already, so I won’t go into too much detail. Still, all of this, combined with Randy Pitchford’s dismissive attitude toward genuine performance complaints, leaves a sour taste in what should otherwise have been a sweet yet bitter one.
Borderlands 4 is a genuinely good addition to the franchise, yet a maniacal CEO is currently letting it down. Hopefully, Gearbox Software can look past the noise and focus on addressing player concerns. For now, it’s good to see the team working on an FOV slider, and hopefully, a motion blur toggle will follow. Until then, I hope any fellow Vault Hunters out there are still managing to enjoy the game despite its glaring issues.
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