Gearbox has confirmed that Borderlands 3 is getting a free upgrade for all current-gen owners. That means that if you already have the game now, you can get it for free on next-gen consoles, be that an Xbox Series S, Series X, or PlayStation 5. They’ve also confirmed that a few updates are coming to the game, including some features that we’ve all been after for a very long time.
Mayhem is coming to next gen! And we heard you about vertical split-screen — that's coming to current-gen too! #Borderlands3 pic.twitter.com/RuxqQx5THI
— Borderlands (@Borderlands) September 12, 2020
With current-gen consoles, 2 player split-screen is on the way. This means that you’ll be able to play in the same room, on the same console, with a friend in Borderlands 3. I think this is great, because it means that those living with someone else who have been desperate to play together now finally can. The original Borderlands had this feature, but for some reason it just wasn’t possible in Borderlands 3. Until now that is.
What’s more, this feature is doubled with next-gen consoles. That means that you can get up to four people all playing on the same screen, and it’s going to be glorious. While it might be a while before we can actually all play together on the same screen, the fact that we’ll soon be able to means that Borderlands 3 is 100% more accessible than it was before.
Finally, crossplay has just been confirmed for the game as well. This doesn’t help you if you want to play between an Xbox and Playstation at home, the only way to do that will just be to play online. If you have a friend who also plays Borderlands 3, just on a different console, then you two can now hook up and play regardless of platform. It might not seem like much of a jump, but there really are some barriers to entry with the game, and this is one of them.
This makes Borderlands 3 a launch title for the Xbox Series X and Series S in essence. It’ll be available from day one, and that’s going to be incredible. This is one of the best shooters of the last year, and it’s still getting new content. I think that Gearbox is going to continue to support Borderlands 3 moving forward, so we can expect this to be one of the better shooters on next-gen consoles for the foreseeable future.