Gearbox Software’s Borderlands 4 had a successful but complicated launch. While the title set a Borderlands series record with its massive concurrent player count, the game was also bogged down by negative reviews. Many of these initial complaints were due to the game’s inability to run properly on standard PCs, but recently console players have also found themselves struggling with Borderlands 4. These struggles come from the game’s console versions lacking a field-of-view (FOV) slider and having un-removable motion blur effects. Randy Pitchford, the founder of Gearbox Entertainment, has recently put out a statement addressing these player concerns.
Despite the PC version of Borderlands 4 giving players access to a FOV slider, those playing the looter-shooter on console are currently stuck with the game’s standard FOV. Console players were confused and dissatisfied with this gameplay limitation, especially considering that the game’s FOV was remarkably low. One player on the Borderlands subreddit posted that their inability to increase the game’s FOV, combined with excessive and unremovable motion blur, gave them motion sickness and made the game unplayable. The post has hundreds of upvotes and comments agreeing that lack of a FOV slider negatively impacts their gaming experience. Another post on the Borderlands subreddit echoes these concerns, with the original poster and some commenters going as far as requesting refunds for the game due to FOV-induced motion sickness.
Randy Pitchford, one of the founders of Gearbox Software’s parent company Gearbox Entertainment, has recently addressed these concerns on his X account. Pitchford explains that he has “dreams…where a FOV setting might affect fairness,” and that he cannot disclose what “dreams” he is referring to. The post contained a poll in which players could vote on how necessary they deem a FOV slider to be, with 72.7% of participants voting for the option “FOV Slider or GTFO!” Underneath that post, Pitchford comments that fans “have no idea what the team and I were planning and how FOV slider might affect fairness…That said, I’ve always wanted to commit to and prioritize what Borderlands should be.”
A recent post on the Borderlands X account has confirmed that developers for Borderlands 4 are currently in the process of adding a FOV slider for players on the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. It is unclear how the implementation of FOV sliders on consoles will impact the fairness of future content, but it is safe to say that this setting will be a positive addition regardless.