Despite the incredible success of Borderlands 2, Gearbox Software isn't working on a third entry right now.
"We are not working on Borderlands 3," Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told Polygon. "That is unqualified. We have more to do in the franchise, but no there isn't a Borderlands 3."
Pitchford then went on to clarify that while Gearbox is currently not working on a new entry in the franchise, the studio plans to return to it when the time is right.
When you think of what Borderlands 3 should be, it should be massive. It should be bigger and better than Borderlands 2. It should carry forward the story. It's probably crazy multiplatform, depending on timing. It would have to be a next-gen game and a current-gen game, if it was coming at any time in the reasonably near future.
We love Borderlands, and we know customers do too. So we will be doing more in Borderlands. But the thing that, when you think of what Borderlands 3 should be… No. We are not developing that right now. We don't know what that is yet. We can imagine what it must achieve, but we don't know what it is yet. I'm not going to fuck around with you like Valve does with Half-Life 3.
Look. We know we want it and we know it should exist, but we don't know what it is yet. But we are doing things in Borderlands that we'll announce soon, that are good, and that I think people will be really excited about if you love the franchise.
Instead, the company has a number of other projects on its plate, two of which are brand-new IPs. "We created Brothers in Arms. We created Borderlands. We acquired Duke Nukem. We acquired Homeworld. I'm building two original IPs for next-gen. I can't personally invest myself wholly in all of these things," he explained.
"So I invest myself in one or two things, and empower talent and creativity around me and beside me and in this vicinity. I do whatever I can to fuel that and let awesome people do awesome things. I love that feeling."
The final piece of Borderlands 2 DLC, Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax, launches on April 15th.
