The popular shoot ‘em up RPG franchise Borderlands is rumored to receive a new title called Borderlands: The Pre-sequel, according to a report on GamePointsNow. The story takes place five years before the events of Borderlands 2 and will be developed by 2K Australia for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. 2K Australia has helped with the Bioshock and XCOM series and will work with Gearbox Software, the developer of the first two games.

EDIT: The announcement is official! 2K Australia and Gearbox announced today that Borderlands: The Pre-sequel will be dropping sometime in 2014. Be sure to check out the developer overview trailer after the jump.

The story is rumored to follow a younger Handsome Jack, the main antagonist from Borderlands 2 who commandeered the Hyperion Corporation and appointed himself the dictator of Pandora. However, five years before he was Handsome Jack he was John, a “humble programmer hunting a powerful alien artifact”.

Set on the moon of Elpis and the H-shaped space base belonging to Hyperion, gamers will take control of one of Jack/ John’s four lieutenants: Athena the Gladiator, Wilhelm the Enforcer, Nisha the Lawbringer and Fragtrap, a militarized claptrap. Athena’s combat-style will be melee based (wielding a plasma sword) and has the ability to boot up a kinetic shield to “absorb incoming fire.” Wilhelm comes equipped with a shoulder-mounted cannon and can call in drone support.

The Pre-sequel brings a few big additions to the franchise: new weapon types, low-gravity environments and oxygen, to name a few. Laser and Cryo weapons will be introduced to the already ridiculous amount of weapons. Since Elpis is a moon, there will be low gravity in that environment and jetpacks make an appearance to help you get around. Finally, oxygen will play a “huge role” and come in a lootable form: OX-Kits.

A disclaimer: this is all still rumor until officially confirmed, but GamePointsNow seems confident in it’s validity, stating “we can say we are sure you’ll be hearing (or maybe reading) something real soon”.

Gearbox’s CEO and President Randy Pitchford told Polygon two months ago that there was no Borderlands 3 in production. “We are not working on a Borderlands 3,” Pitchford said. “We have more to do in the franchise, but no there isn’t a Borderlands 3.” That’s technically true, as this isn’t Borderlands 3 and Gearbox isn’t directly behind development. As for additions to the franchise, Gearbox IS working on Tales from the Borderlands alongside Telltale games – the developer behind The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us series’.