Gearbox might finally reveal Borderlands 3 at PAX East this month. The Borderlands 3 reveal has been in the cards for years, but Gearbox’s annual PAX East panel is promising surprises. The last new Gearbox-developed Borderlands game was 2014’s The Pre-Sequel, although that was developed in collaboration with 2K Australia.
The Gearbox Main Theater Show at PAX East on March 28 at 2 PM ET will reveal something. The panel will have “never-before-seen reveals, exclusives, and surprises” according to its official description. A Borderlands 3 reveal would be a great surprise for fans of the series. Speculation that the panel would showcase Borderlands 3 started making the rounds earlier this week when the PAX East schedule dropped online.
2K Games, publisher of the Borderlands series, has said that it has a “big” game releasing in 2019 although that game is not yet known. It is possible that the new game could be a BioShock title, but it is more likely to be the next Borderlands game.
Borderlands 3 has been rumored for years, and job listings at Gearbox continue to fuel rumors around the game. Randy Pitchford, Gearbox’s CEO and president, confirmed that a new Borderlands was coming way back in 2015. Job listings in 2017 saw Gearbox hiring for writers on a new “unannounced AAA FPS/RPG” which fits the Borderlands mold quite well.
Pitchford presented a tech demo at the 2017 Game Developer Conference that featured art designed for Borderlands 3. That tech demo showcased Gearbox’s approach to rendering the “Borderlands art style” within Unreal Engine 4.
Gearbox has been developing Borderlands 3 since at least 2015, and Pitchford has described the game as “the big one.” That was at PAX South in January 2015. The game has been in development ever since. Gearbox released Battleborn, a first-person hero shooter, in May 2016. That game was overshadowed by Blizzard’s Overwatch that released a few weeks later.
Gearbox’s PAX East panel may finally take the covers off Borderlands 3. The game has been in development for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Pitchford has said in the past that Borderlands 3 on Switch is unlikely.
