Take-Two CEO Says Borderlands 4’s PC Performance Issues Hurt Sales

A recent report has revealed that Borderlands 4 sales were below the expectations of Take-Two Interactive. The publisher’s CEO has blamed the game’s disappointing sales on BL4’s performance issues on PC.

Take-Two CEO Blames Borderlands 4’s PC Issues for Poor Sales

When Borderlands 4 was released back in September, it was reported that the game had the series’ most profitable first month ever. However, in a new financial update, Take-Two Interactive has revealed that Borderlands 4 sales were actually below expectations. Where things get interesting, though, is that Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick seemingly blamed the game’s PC performance issues.

In a November 7 interview, Zelnick called out Borderlands 4’s technical issues at launch. “The critical acclaim for Borderlands 4 was superb, and we’re really happy with the release. Equally, as you know, there were some challenges with the Steam release. Gearbox Software has been addressing those challenges and will continue to do so. So, in terms of units sold out of the gate, the numbers were a little softer than we would have liked.”

While the Take-Two CEO’s statement about the game might seem negative, he did clarify that he believed the game would do well over time. “In the fullness of time, we think it’s going to do great.” Still, given the popularity of Borderlands 4 at launch, it’s surprising to hear Zelnick say the game sold below expectations—especially since Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford was pretty vocal about the game not having technical performance issues.

Borderlands 4 PC Performance Controversy

As we reported previously, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford got into a bit of hot water in September over his comments about Borderlands 4’s performance issues. When the game launched, many players were unhappy with its performance. Users specifically complained about FPS dips, stuttering, and load-in issues. This was particularly a problem with the PC edition of the game.

On Steam, Borderlands 4 was immediately bombarded with negative reviews. Many PC users criticized the Unreal Engine 5 title and argued that the looter-shooter had launched in an unacceptable state. While Gearbox Software has since released many patches to address the issue, Borderlands 4 still sits at a “Mixed” rating on the Valve-owned platform. In fact, the game currently has 50% negative reviews in the last month alone, so players are still not happy with its current performance.

Interestingly, Take-Two Interactive’s CEO seems to believe this is a major reason the game has not met its sales expectations. However, Borderlands 4 director Randy Pitchford has in the past disagreed with these criticisms. When players were giving the game negative reviews at launch, Pitchford told users to go out and develop their own game if they were unhappy with it.

The Gearbox Software CEO also claimed that Borderlands 4 didn’t actually have major performance issues. According to Pitchford, it was mostly players trying to run the game at 4K with Ultimate Settings on PC. Based on this latest interview, it appears that Zelnick disagrees.