Borderlands Mobile

Zynga

Update: I just heard back from a 2K spokesperson, who confirms this is regional test and the game does not even actually have a name yet:

“We are always exploring ways to introduce Borderlands to new audiences. Zynga's NaturalMotion studio is currently conducting a limited-time test for an untitled Borderlands mobile project, with Gearbox providing creative guidance on the franchise's design, history, and lore. We hope that players enjoy this new Borderlands experience and look forward to their feedback.”

Original article follows:

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While it is not uncommon for mainstream AAA franchises to try to make their way into the mobile space, it is uncommon for them to appear effectively out of nowhere, which is what’s currently happening with the just-released Borderlands Mobile.

The game, currently only in the US and apparently with a number of features locked, is downloadable on the iOS store at the time of this writing, though there are some debates about whether this perhaps launched too early by accident, or if this “soft stealth launch” was how it was meant to go. I have not heard back from 2K yet.

This truly has appeared out of nowhere. There are no PR releases, no tweets, there is no trailer, I don’t believe this was ever announced as being in development by mobile giant Zynga (which was bought by Take-Two in 2022 for $12.7 billion).

The game is free, and launches with a single character, though three others are previewed. The game takes place between Borderlands 3 and 4, and its canon status is unclear, given that people are say, 30 minutes in at this point.

The game features a whole lot of reused assets from current games, but avid Borderlands players are already noting that it features a lot of things that players have asked for from the main series, namely launching with endgame activities like raids and Circle of Slaughter. It also has gameplay features like weapon upgrading and scrapping and mod slotting. It, of course, has a battle pass and will have to be sustained on microtransactions, but with a soft launch, it’s not clear how much of the total will be live.

This appears to be a purely Zynga product with little Gearbox involvement This entire thing reminds me of Destiny Rising, a game made almost entirely independently of Bungie by NetEase, and launching with a lot of features Destiny fans had been asking for. However, that game was at least announced way in advance and eventually marketed.

Is there a market for this? The timing is a bit odd, to say the least, given that Borderlands 4’s Mad Ellie big DLC just launched two weeks ago, and Gearbox would like the focus to still be on that. But here’s…a new Borderlands game, an RKO out of nowhere, so to speak.

It is, of course, too early to tell if this game is any good. Touchscreen shooter play is unreasonably bad for me personally, so if I’m going to play, it will have to be on controller. I’m not even sure it has controller support, actually, I should check that.

This is just very strange. I’m waiting for any sort of announcement for Take-Two or Zynga, either about this going live or about it being an accidental launch, but the cat’s out of the bag now, and I assume this will remain live.

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