Gearbox CEO Says Not to Expect Borderlands 3 on the Nintendo Switch, Apparently Nintendo Has ‘Other Priorities’
Just as third-party support for Nintendo’s new console was starting to look promising, we hit this stumbling stone. Something happened between Gearbox and Nintendo recently that will reportedly cause Borderlands 3 to miss a release on the Nintendo Switch.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford took to twitter today to answer a fan question about seeing Borderlands 3 on the Switch. Mr. Pitchford said right out, “I don’t see that as happening.” Apparently, they “were talking to Nintendo, but that stopped for some reason. They have other priorities.” This is especially bizarre as the Borderlands games have previously been published by 2K games, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive, a confirmed publishing partner for the Nintendo Switch. 2K is already set to publish at least one confirmed NBA game for the switch so one must assume that the issue is between Nintendo and Gearbox.
Borderlands is 2k’s best-selling title, selling over 12 million copies. The project titled Borderlands 3 was hyped as, “the big one” back in 2015 when it was announced. At PAX East in 2016, we learned that the game would be a successor to Borderlands 2 but may not actually be called Borderlands 3. Apparently, the project is being developed specifically for next gen systems and this could help to explain why the deal with Nintendo fell through.
Nintendo seems to be banking on expanding the game library of the Switch with a number of last gen ports. The novelty of the Switch’s portability may be enough to breathe new life into older games like Skyrim, but to stay relevant in the war of the consoles, Nintendo is going to need to get current Tripple-A developers on board.
Maybe Borderlands 3 for the Nintendo Switch is just being shelved for the moment as Nintendo beefs up the game library for their new system… Maybe the new Borderlands game simply won’t work with the Nintendo Switch’s software without significant tweaking… Or perhaps there’s some sort of personal storm brewing between the two huge companies. Whatever the reason, don’t wait up for Borderlands 3 on the Nintendo Switch. Until this storm passes, it looks like playing Borderlands 3 on a laptop is about as portable as the game is going to get.