Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has confirmed that Borderlands 3 will not support cross-platform play when it launches on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on 13th September, despite previously calling the feature “a pre-requisite”.
Cross-play chatter has surrounded Borderlands 3 pretty much since its initial unveiling, with Pitchford tweeting back in April that “Gearbox have a very keen interest” in the feature.
This, he suggested, was one of the reason why the decision had been made to restrict sales of Borderlands 3 to the Epic Games Store on PC. “We believe multi-platform support is a pre-requisite,” he wrote, “and Epic’s leadership with cross platform support is helpful to our interests there.”
Shortly after Pitchford’s tweet, publisher 2K told Game Spot that “cross-play is something we’re looking at closely, but we don’t have anything to confirm or announce at this time”.
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As such, when Gearbox started to tease its latest Borderlands 3 reveal (to be held at 3pm on 16th July) with the phrase “A celebration of togetherness”, fans unsurprisingly reached the conclusion that a cross-play announcement might be imminent.
That dream, however, has now been quashed, thanks to a tweet from Pitchford clarifying that cross-play is not the subject of Gearbox’s next reveal. Pitchford went a step further, though, also confirming that, despite being “committed to supporting cross-play for Borderlands 3 with our partners as soon as practicable”, the feature will not be available at launch.