The pricing, availability, and minimum and recommended PC specs for Borderlands 4 were unveiled on Monday. Today, it is very clear to see that Borderlands fans aren’t happy about several aspects of the announcement, particularly the PC recommended specs and the pricing tiers.
Fans of the franchise are quite furious about the PC requirements and the pricing structure they are now looking at.
On Reddit, a very spicy thread calls into question the necessity for recommended hardware such as an octa-core CPU, and at least an RTX 3080 / RX 6800 XT, to enjoy Borderlands 4. We also note that 32GB of RAM is recommended, and this game will eat up to 100GB of SSD storage at launch.
Interestingly, even the recommended RTX 3080 may struggle. This card originally launched with 10GB on board, but was refreshed with 12GB. However, small print under the recommended specs listing asserts that “12GB+” is required. We wonder if VRAM might become an issue with GPUs like the new RTX 5070.
PC specs seem high for a ‘cel-shaded’ shooter looter
From its origins, Borderlands set itself apart in visual style using a ‘cel-shading’ graphical style, using thick outlines and stylized textures throughout.
While this simpler-than-nature representation of characters and 3D worlds should have made the game less demanding in the 3D stakes, layering on all sorts of enhancing graphical enhancements and particle effects worked against this. Actually, the initial trio of Borderlands games made use of Nvidia PhysX to render its best dynamic cloth, explosive debris, and particle effects.
Borderlands 3 moved away from dedicated GPU PhysX, handling the same style of visual effects in a more GPU-agnostic manner. And now we have Borderlands 4 set to arrive in a few months, packing the latest Unreal Engine 5 – a notoriously demanding foundation for PC games.
PC gaming stalwarts may also not be surprised to see that Borderlands 4 is also going to feature potentially performance-impacting DRM. The product page says it will arrive laced with Denuvo and Symbiote.
Editions and pricing
The pricing for the ‘Standard Edition’ of the new game at $69.99 isn’t the source of much resentment on social media. That price is in line with the BL3 launch. However, the Deluxe ($99.99) and Super Deluxe ($129.99) editions have been criticized for ‘paywalling’ day-1 content.
Indeed, it is apparent there aren’t just cosmetics and the like stuffed into the more expensive editions. The Deluxe adds “4 unique areas, missions, & bosses,” as well as some new gear and weapons, and four new vehicles.
Moving up to the Super Deluxe edition, gamers are most upset by there being “2 new playable Vault Hunters” exclusively included at this price. Vault Hunters are the characters you play in this franchise, and each has their own unique character, abilities, and skill trees, boosting game fun and replayability.
What’s next?
Hopefully, Gearbox, the dev team behind the franchise, can do some optimization between now and September 12 to ensure Borderlands 4 can run more smoothly and slickly on lesser hardware. We shall have to wait and see. For those who care very deeply about price, patience will usually be rewarded.
Borderlands 4 releases simultaneously on both Steam and the Epic Games Store on PC, as well as on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Switch 2 gamers will have to wait a little longer.
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