Gearbox says Borderlands 4's humor will be grounded in its world: 'We want to make sure that it's situational, that it emerges naturally'

Last week's Borderlands 4 teaser didn't tell us much about Gearbox's next big co-op looter shooter, but at PAX West today, the creative leads lined up on stage to give us a little more insight—just a little—into what what we can expect from the next billions-of-guns looter shooter.

There weren't many specific Borderlands 4 details in the panel—big news: it takes place on a new planet with new vault hunters—but one takeaway is that Gearbox seems to be self-conscious about the perception of Borderlands' sense of humor as untethered, omg-so-random pop culture chaff. For Borderlands 4, the studio says it's emphasizing character-driven comedy that "emerges naturally."

"With Borderlands 4, we want to bring it back to the player," said narrative director Sam Winkler. "We want to make sure the player and the vault hunters are the central characters of our story. We want to make sure the world is reactive, that the world is grounded. That while we keep our humor that brings a lot of people coming back to our franchise, in the game, we want to make sure that it's situational, that it emerges naturally. So while we're building these characters, we're always making sure that they have strong personalities, that they will react differently to different situations, that we see the effects of that."

Senior product producer Anthony Nicholson added that "feeling like you're the one pushing things along and getting things taken care of, instead of being along for a ride" is a prime focus for Borderlands 4. I'm not sure if I felt a lack of agency in previous Borderlands games, necessarily, so I'm curious to see what this "bring it back to the player" philosophy will really mean for the storytelling and humor in practice.

You can watch the full Gearbox PAX panel on Twitch. The Borderlands 4 conversation starts around halfway through, and although it's light on specifics, the devs did show off some concept art, which you can also see below. It's the "most diverse and beautiful game" they've ever made, according to art director Adam May.

Randy Pitchford was feeling unwell, so you don't get a magic trick at this one, sorry.

Borderlands 4 doesn't have a release date, but Gearbox plans to release it next year. It'll be the first Borderlands to not just be published by Take-Two and 2K Games, but fully owned by the mega-publisher, which acquired Gearbox in March.