Borderlands 3 Will Not Launch with Cross-Play

Later today (since I post these really early in the morning for you folks living in the States), Gearbox, the developers behind Borderlands 3, are hosting something called “a celebration of togetherness,” which starts at 7AM Pacific Time. A few hours from when this will be posted, as a matter of fact.

While we’re not long from figuring out what it is, there is one thing we’re positive it’s not – an announcement of cross-play capabilities for the upcoming Borderlands 3. Because despite really, really sounding like it, apparently that’s just not something Gearbox can commit to at this time.

Randy Pitchford took a break from being the worst to explain over Twitter:

"Some folks may be speculating that this thing tomorrow may be about cross play. Tomorrow’s thing is awesome, but *not* about cross-play. But, Good News: We are committed to supporting cross-play for Borderlands 3 with our partners as soon as practicable after launch.

To be clear, there will not be any cross-play functionality in Borderlands 3 at launch as we work closely with our partners to create a positive cross-play experience as soon as practicable. We are committed to cross-play on as many platforms as possible."

That would be encouraging, because cross-play with Borderlands 3 would be a fantastic thing we all support, considering co-op with other people is kind of the whole main selling point of the game. And it’s tempting to say that thanks to how big it will be, cross-play will be a given very soon, but it seems only the humongous games – we’re talking Rocket League, Fortnite, Minecraft – are able to get true cross-play up and rolling in a meaningful time frame. Even Apex Legends hasn’t been able to get cross-play up, and that’s a pretty big game published by EA.

So it’s little wonder they’re not giving us a time frame.