Randy Pitchford’s Ridiculous Borderlands 4 Defense Crumbles As New Tests Show Consoles Hitting Laughable Low Framerates
Players say they’ve been misled after hours of gameplay reduce the $70 blockbuster to a slideshow.
Summary
- Borderlands 4 frame rates tank to 35 FPS after one hour on PS5 and Xbox, Digital Foundry confirms a hidden “enrage timer” performance collapse.
- Randy Pitchford claims rebooting fixes everything, but critics slam the idea of restarting a $70 premium game every hour.
- Missing FOV slider, memory leaks, and Unreal Engine 5 struggles fuel growing backlash against Gearbox and Borderlands 4’s launch.
Lets be honest, Borderlands 4 should have been a victory lap for Gearbox. Six years since the last mainline entry, a flashy new engine, a promise of premium visuals and premium gameplay.
But nope, instead, it’s turning into a case study in how to torch goodwill, confuse your audience, and end up as a meme about bad performance.
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What Happened
The conversation really started with Randy Pitchford’s claim that Borderlands 4 was a game for “premium gamers”.
That meant you’d need a monster rig to experience it properly. People joked that you’d need a $10,000 PC just to hit 60 frames per second at 720p.
That was supposed to be sarcasm, but then the reality check arrived.
Digital Foundry confirmed the nightmare. On consoles, performance steadily degrades the longer you play (see below).
After 30 minutes, frame rate dips start showing up. By the one-hour mark, resolution tanks to 720p with frame rates crawling around 35 fps.
Imagine buying an $800 PlayStation 5 Pro or Series X and being told your new toy is only good for slideshow gaming unless you reboot the software every hour.
That’s the so-called “enrage timer”. MMO players know the term: it’s when the game essentially punishes you after a set time.
Except here it isn’t a raid mechanic, it’s just… playing the game normally.
The Restart Solution
Pitchford’s big advice? Restart the game. That’s it. If your performance tanks, quit to the menu and boot it back up. He claims this “fixes” everything, so the game is fine.
Tech experts at IGN and Digital Foundry called @#$%!.
They pointed out that rebooting your game every hour should never be considered an acceptable solution. It’s not a design feature. It’s a memory leak. It’s the kind of bug you’re supposed to patch before launch, not spin as a quirky workaround.
Players posted video clips showing the frame rate plunging mid-combat. A clean boot starts at a respectable 60 fps.
After an hour, the same PS5 is crawling at 35. Randy’s suggestion to just “reset every now and then” isn’t going over well.
Cell-Shaded Struggle
Well, Borderlands isn’t exactly known for pushing photorealism. The series thrives on exaggerated, comic book-style visuals.
That makes the frame rate issues even more baffling.
The comparison floating around social media is brutal: back in the day, the benchmark question was “Can it run Crysis?”.
That was a badge of honor. Today it’s “Can it run Borderlands 4?”, but now it’s a dig, not an achievement. The irony is hard to miss.
You’re struggling to run a cartoon-looking shooter worse than some of the most technically demanding games on the market.
Console Backlash
Performance isn’t the only console headache. Players noticed there’s no field of view slider. When asked why, Pitchford reportedly said it would be “unfair” to other players who didn’t use it.
Which is a weird stance, considering he also argued that low fps doesn’t matter since Borderlands isn’t competitive.
If it’s not a competitive shooter, then why would an FOV slider give someone an “edge”? The contradictions are piling up.
On top of that, bugs like broken NPC pathfinding and flickering lighting are adding to the complaints.
And these aren’t tiny nitpicks. They’re the kind of rough edges that make a game feel unfinished.
Unreal Engine 5 Blame Game
Some fans point the finger at Unreal Engine 5. They argue Epic’s new tech is the real villain, since other UE5 launches like Metal Gear Solid Delta and the Oblivion Remaster also had frame rate problems.
But blaming the engine only gets you so far.
Most studios only get a week or two of training from Epic when adopting UE5. That’s not much when you’re building a massive AAA title.
Developers are left to figure out the quirks on their own, and sometimes that inexperience shows. Borderlands has used Unreal before, but UE5 is practically a different beast.
The learning curve is steep.
That said, passing the buck isn’t winning sympathy. Players paid good money for this game.
Hearing excuses about lack of training or tricky engines doesn’t change the fact that their $70 purchase is underperforming.
Premium Gamers Gaslit
The marketing angle about “premium gamers” didn’t help either. Pitchford and company initially blamed underpowered rigs, suggesting that only top-tier machines could deliver the experience.
But when the same problems show up on consoles, that argument falls apart.
Telling your audience they’re not “premium enough” while they stare at 30 fps slideshows on brand-new hardware isn’t a great look.
At that point, it stops being damage control and starts feeling like gaslighting.
Digital Foundry’s Verdict
Digital Foundry’s analysis didn’t leave much wiggle room (watch below). They found gradually worsening frame rates on both PS5 Pro and Series X even after fresh reboots.
They also said performance dips were “too intrusive” and “too regular in interruption.”
In plain English, that means the game keeps stuttering no matter what you do, and asking players to restart every hour isn’t a fix.
Their recommendation? Emergency patch. Gearbox has promised one, but the damage is already spreading across forums, YouTube, and X.
The memeification of Borderlands 4 has started, and once a reputation for bad optimization sticks, it’s tough to shake.
So, Who’s At Fault?
Who takes the blame? Some say Unreal Engine 5. Others say Gearbox’s inexperience. Honestly, it’s both. Unreal is demanding, and the developers clearly weren’t fully ready.
But that doesn’t excuse the product being shipped in this state.
The bigger problem is how Gearbox handled the criticism. Instead of acknowledging the memory leaks upfront, they tried to spin them as quirks.
Instead of explaining a missing FOV slider, they blamed fairness. And instead of owning the performance issues, they leaned into the “premium gamers” narrative that instantly backfired.
Waiting For Fixes
Gearbox insists patches are on the way. That’s the standard script now for troubled AAA launches, promise updates, hope players stick around long enough for the fixes, and pray the meme storm dies down.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes, well, it doesn’t.
The important question here is whether Borderlands 4 can bounce back. Fans waited six years. Expectations were high.
If the first impression is “restart every hour or else,” people might not wait for a miracle patch.
Meanwhile the market is full of smoother shooters and looter RPGs. It’s not like players have no other options.
Gearbox risks turning Borderlands 4 into the punchline of 2025.
Borderlands 4 was pitched as a technical leap. What it delivered was a frame rate rollercoaster, missing features, and mixed messaging from its own leadership.
Now players are feeling like beta testers.
And unless Gearbox delivers serious fixes fast, Borderlands 4 may end up remembered less for its guns and humor, and more for being the game where a cartoon shooter somehow couldn’t keep 60 fps without begging you to restart.
Even major publishers are reportedly struggling to secure Nintendo’s next-gen hardware for testing.
