Borderlands 4 Is Struggling for an Unreal Engine 5 Game — and Gearbox Is Blaming the Players
The launch of Borderlands 4 has sparked controversy — stuttering performance on PC, angry players… and a studio head who’s pushing back. Between disappointing technical reviews and heated debates on social media, Gearbox’s looter-shooter is making plenty of headlines.
What was expected to be one of the year’s biggest hits has quickly turned sour. Since its release last week, Borderlands 4 has faced mounting criticism. Players report freezes, crashes, and severe optimization issues, making the experience nightmarish for many PC users. And Randy Pitchford’s reaction, rather than calming the situation, has only added fuel to the fire.
Image credit: Sony
Experts confirm poor performance
The first hours of Borderlands 4 were a disaster for many PC players. On Steam, the game currently holds a “Mixed” rating — a particularly disappointing result for a AAA title in such a well-established franchise. Reports are piling up of constant freezes and crashes, major framerate drops even on high-end hardware, and a near-mandatory reliance on DLSS and AI upscaling to get acceptable performance.
These issues aren’t just player exaggeration — the technical experts at Digital Foundry have analyzed Borderlands 4, and their verdict is far from flattering:
In Digital Foundry’s video, Alex Battaglia highlights the most common problems:
- Shader compilation stutters that occur whenever entering a new area.
- Severe framerate drops triggered by specific events, such as picking up a new weapon or encountering a new enemy animation.
- Below-average performance for an Unreal Engine 5 game, according to DF.
Randy Pitchford fires back and divides players
In response to the wave of criticism, Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox, went on the offensive rather than trying to smooth things over. In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), he fiercely defended the game, accusing players of misunderstanding modern technical requirements. He specifically called out players trying to run Borderlands 4 on outdated hardware and urged them to “accept the reality” of a premium game built for premium machines.
The minimum and recommended specs are published. The most common hardware is a four year old cell phone. Borderlands 4 is a premium game made for premium gamers. Just as Borderlands 4 cannot run on a PlayStation 4, it cannot be expected to run on too-old PC hardware. Unlike on… — Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025
The Gearbox boss also made waves by mocking players sarcastically, suggesting they “code their own engine” if they weren’t satisfied. This unusually combative approach quickly ignited even more backlash. Players are asking for patches, not lectures.
DLSS dependency at the heart of the debate
Beyond the controversy, the issue touches on a broader topic: PC game optimization in 2025. Many players argue that Borderlands 4 was designed from the start to rely on technologies like DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) and frame generation.
These tools can boost performance by generating AI-assisted frames between real GPU-rendered ones. The problem, critics argue, is that some studios now lean on these solutions instead of optimizing their engines for solid native performance.
Borderlands 4 is a perfect example of this trend: even with a RTX 5080, some players struggle to maintain 60 FPS at 1080p on medium settings without enabling DLSS and frame generation. As Digital Foundry notes, “Borderlands 4 seems to perform worse than usual for an Unreal Engine 5 game,” putting it below the level expected from this well-regarded engine.
