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[LectureMaster]

Borderlands 4 launch "not as explosive as its predecessors," analyst reports, but "strong" Steam start and "steady console sales" make it "positioned for long legs" - especially once the discounts start flowing

A Borderlands game getting discounted? No...

www.gamesradar.com

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(Image credit: 2K)

Borderlands 4 might not have achieved the "explosive" initial success of past Borderlands releases, but one analyst reckons it could be positioned for a long tail of sustained success.

Alinea market analysis head Rhys Elliott broke down September's most-downloaded games in a new Substack post, with Skate 4 taking the top spot. Hollow Knight: Silksong, meanwhile, is absolutely crushing the original Hollow Knight with six million downloads after just four weeks, which isn't surprising to me as it's a sequel releasing after many years of anticipation.

As for Borderlands 4, Elliott noted Gearbox's sequel managed to crack the top five most downloaded games of the month with 3.1 million downloads across all platforms.

"While not as explosive as its predecessors, Borderlands 4's strong Steam uptake and steady console sales suggest it's positioned for long legs – once the discounts start coming in, that is," said Elliott.

Borderlands games are notoriously discount friendly, often getting heavy price cuts within just months on the market. In fact, a pre-release Reddit poll showed most respondents were willing to wait for a discount instead of paying the $70 base price to play at launch.

If there is a sizable chunk of Borderlands 4's player base still waiting for a discount, especially if sales come in increasingly tempting waves, that could help fuel a consistent, long-term stable of batches of new players every so often. Ideally, though, Borderlands 4 just has a robust enough endgame and roster of post-launch content to keep its most loyal base satisfied.

 

[Fake]

"positioned for long legs" - especially once the discounts start

 

[PauloRoberto]

Probably Im out of the loop... but since when borderelands had an 'explosive' initial success?

 

[winjer]

It might have helped if Randy had kept his mouth shut.

 

[Ogbert]

I hope it does well.

It's really good and an enormous amount of effort has gone into it.

 

[Flabagast]

Shit IP, never understood the appeal

 

[Gaiff]

Probably Im out of the loop... but since when borderelands had an 'explosive' initial success?

Borderlands 3 sold 5 million in 5 days.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

or when it's available on Game Pass for more money than it would cost to buy the game

 

[LectureMaster]

Borderlands games are notoriously discount friendly, often getting heavy price cuts within just months on the market.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

"especially once the discounts start"
steam sale for five bucks on the complete game, sure I'll get it then.

 

[Pasta la Vista]

Ill bite at like $30

 

[Raven117]

I mean, borderlands was never a market shaking kind of franchise. And there is ALOT of competition now for screen time nowadays.

Will I get around to playing it? Yeah, probably. It's always good enough for a romp. But I'm not going to put down other games to play it. Willing to bet there are others who feel the same way.

 

[Punished Miku]

I've never played any of these.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

It would be 100X better if it wasn't an optimized piece of shit.

 

[Loomy]

Launching the game in the state they did and Randy being a fucking idiot didn't help. Which is a shame, because the game is very good.

Excited to see what the expansions add. It's also finally connecting and pushing the narrative forward, which is welcomed.

Still the best looter shooter around.

 

[Poppinfresh]

Probably Im out of the loop... but since when borderelands had an 'explosive' initial success?

Borderlands 2, probably.

I didn't play 3, and I played 4 for less than an hour and refunded the game on Steam.

I liked BL2 well enough, but that was 13 years ago, and since then, I've really lost the patience and desire to play most FPS games.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Game is good, but BL2 still king, even If this game has a better story than BL3, 99% of the characters are forgetable and the open world kills all replayability for other vault hunter imo.

 

[Loomy]

Game is good, but BL2 still king

Eh, when it comes to story and vilain only.

BL3 and BL4 have way better gameplay(to be fair, BL2 is old at this point), and the endgame in BL3 blows BL2 out of the water.

If they do a good job fleshing out and building on the coming war narrative they started in BL4 with the DLCs, this one could be really good too.

They also need to make leveling up new characters less of a chore.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

$30 and I'm all in.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Ill bite at like $30

This

 

[Arsic]

I likely will never touch it again. Got to level 18, and did one vault. Felt like I had done and seen everything the game has to offer.

Runs like donkey shit on pro.

If they ever actually update pro support in then I may try it again but that's highly unlikely.

 

[Skifi28]

Never even finished 3. Taking into account the technical issues too, this is a wait for sub tier game at best for me.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

"Not as explosive" is a great new euphemism for "less".

Corp Corp Beep Boop don't make me break out the meme again

 

[CuteFaceJay]

These are good fundamentals when the fundamentals are good.

 

[Mr Moose]

Alinea

No.

 

[Kadve]

I'm waiting for it to be actually finished.

 

[Dr. Samuel Hayden]

Maybe they should've actually finished it first before releasing it

 

[kazuyamishima]

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I got it for free with my 5090 and I have zero interest in actually playing it anytime soon. Maybe after the first year of patching is done

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

$30 is my offer, Randy.

 

[Spukc]

Shit IP, never understood the appeal

Shit opinion did understand it after the first

 

[Lokaum D+]

Eh, when it comes to story and vilain only.

BL3 and BL4 have way better gameplay(to be fair, BL2 is old at this point), and the endgame in BL3 blows BL2 out of the water.

If they do a good job fleshing out and building on the coming war narrative they started in BL4 with the DLCs, this one could be really good too.

They also need to make leveling up new characters less of a chore.

Endgame of BL3 base game is trash tier imo, BL2 at least had some invincible to farm, gameplay wise sure, BL3 and 4 are way better.

Yeah, game is good but like i said, most characters are forgettable and not that interesting

What they need to do is implement a system that let us change my Vault Hunter without the need to replay the game, that way you can play all characters without the chore of leveling than.

Also, they know how to make space scenarios.

 

[Northeastmonk]

My guess is the vanilla version launched at the most expensive price this IP has ever been. They'll make the DLC look awesome and there will be multiple expansions. So instead of spending your $70 on a base game, they'll probably snag it when the DLC starts to drop.

I bought it and played 8 or so hours. Haven't gone back to it cause of other games coming out.

 

[semiconscious]

Ill bite at like $30

this. neogaf needs to start pricing games by franchise...

 

[Dr Cowley]

Loads of copies will be sold... for $0.00 on the epic store within a year I'd guess

 

[Loomy]

What they need to do is implement a system that let us change my Vault Hunter without the need to replay the game, that way you can play all characters without the chore of leveling than.

Yeah I don't mind redoing missions, but I doing want to unlock map and backpack/ammo capacity again

 

[Kacho]

If Monster Hunter Wilds is anything to go by sales may fall off a cliff

 

[SunnySideGuy]

If the game wasn't broken for two weeks straight Im sure less people would've refunded too. There is a fun game under all of the UE5 crashes, but it's hard to enjoy when it's happening once every 20 minutes (especially on a high end rig).

 

[Kenpachii]

Great game playing it with my buddy, but the system requirements and performance issue's really make the game a hard sell for many pc gamers.

 

[PeteBull]

"While not as explosive as its predecessors, Borderlands 4's strong Steam uptake and steady console sales suggest it's positioned for long legs – once the discounts start coming in, that is," said Elliott.

 

[BennyBlanco]

You will get an objectively better experience if you wait a year to play any AAA slop. Especially with UE5 in the mix.

 

[CLW]

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

"especially once the discounts start"
steam sale for five bucks on the complete game, sure I'll get it then.

I bought borderlands 2 for $5 with all the dlc. Enjoyed it but never finished it.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I played it and beat it, I enjoyed my time with it. But if you weren't excited enough to buy at launch, then at this point you might as well wait for a good sale.

Performance is ass and this game crashes literally more than any other game I've played. Might as well wait till we early adopters finish beta testing it.

 

[Nydius]

Discounts are the only way I'll ever have the DLC. I got only the base game at launch and if I want all the content for the next year I have to buy two separate packs for $90. A minor DLC pack (Bounty Pack) for $40 and a major DLC pack (Vault Hunter Pack) for $50.

Or I can just wait until this time next year and get the Super Deluxe Edition with all of that included on sale for $50 or less.