Randy Pitchford isn’t over the criticisms of Borderlands 4 just yet. As more complaints pour in following the game’s September 12 release, the Gearbox CEO—whose studio developed the title—has been responding with jokes, arguments, and even confusing advice.
Fans have been especially vocal about the game’s PC performance, which has been plagued by stuttering and other technical issues.
But instead of helping players or promising a fix, Pitchford has become defensive and often seems dismissive and confrontational.
What Did Randy Pitchford Say About Borderlands 4’s Criticism?
After Borderlands 4’s release on Steam, players have been complaining about major performance issues, and Pitchford doesn’t seem pleased about it.
In a post on X, he told a player that PC users need to accept the reality of the relationship between their hardware and the software they run, after the player criticized the game’s poor optimization.
When Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson called him out and told him to “be a man,” Pitchford responded with an unnecessary personal jab:
“Every man must accept the reality of the relationship between their gender and what the software they are running is doing,” he wrote. “Masculinity is a shader option. Try turning it off if you’d like to tune your own performance.”
He also dismissed comparisons with Cyberpunk 2077 and Battlefield 6’s troubled launches, stressing that Borderlands 4 is a “premium game made for premium users.”
“I would absolutely expect BF6 to be built to prioritize FPS more than BL4,” he added. “One is a competitive shooter, the other is a campaign looter shooter. Would you like help tuning your personal specifications?”
Additionally, he told dissatisfied players to “get a refund from Steam” if they weren’t happy and said, “The game is the game.”
“If you’re not happy using the tools available to improve frame rate and you’re not happy with the frame rate you have, you should play a different game,” he said, responding to a player who refused to use DLSS and complained the game “plays poorly” even on the best setup.
Why Fans Are Frustrated with Borderlands 4?
Six years after the release of Borderlands 3, fans were eagerly anticipating what Borderlands 4 had to offer.
While the game broke series records on Steam with over 300,000 concurrent players, the excitement quickly faded due to reported poor PC performance.
Technical experts have highlighted major issues such as stuttering, cutscene drops, and inefficient graphics settings. Digital Foundry tech expert Alex Battaglia pointed to compilation stutter as the main culprit, noting that the game hitches whenever new assets appear.
“The stutter issue makes the experience feel less polished,” he said, also mentioning that the way vegetation flips into animation looked “a little weird.”
Rich Leadbetter added that the stutter even occurred on “the fastest gaming CPU that money can buy,” indicating that the problem isn’t limited to low-end setups but lies with the game itself.
Additionally, while the game is advertised for its “badass” graphics, Battaglia warned players to be cautious, calling them “woefully inefficient” and “placebo-level stuff.”
Although Gearbox has rolled out a silent update with no patch notes and posted an NVIDIA optimization guide on Steam, tests show that Borderlands 4’s technical problems persist.
Unfortunately, Pitchford appears to be making the situation worse with his unfiltered comments and advice.