If you were hoping to take Borderlands 4 on the go with your Switch 2, don't cancel your pre-order just yet - but temper your expectations. According to Kotaku, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has confirmed that bringing Borderlands 4 to Nintendo's new hardware is "doable," while making it clear it's nowhere near the top of Gearbox's current priority list.
The reasoning is straightforward: Gearbox is still working through performance and stability issues on the platforms where Borderlands 4 is already launching. Until those problems are squared away, committing engineering resources to a Switch 2 port doesn't make a lot of sense. It's a measured, if slightly frustrating, stance for anyone eager to play the looter-shooter in handheld mode.
Fixing what's broken first
This kind of "we'll get to it later" messaging isn't unusual in the industry, but it does raise questions about Borderlands 4's launch state. The implication that the game needs to be "fixed elsewhere" before a new platform can even be considered suggests the development team has its hands full with day-one concerns on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
Gearbox has had a complicated run with Borderlands 4's development cycle, and Zelnick's comments reflect a studio trying to manage expectations across a crowded release window rather than overpromise on additional hardware support.
Switch 2 is becoming a real conversation for third parties
What's notable here is that Take-Two is even entertaining the Switch 2 discussion at all. Nintendo's new console has been gaining serious traction with third-party publishers, and the fact that a technically demanding title like Borderlands 4 is considered "doable" on the hardware says something positive about Switch 2's capabilities. The platform's improved specs appear to be opening doors that the original Switch kept firmly shut for many AAA releases.
For now, Switch 2 owners looking for their next co-op fix will need to keep watching. If Gearbox manages to ship a clean, well-optimized version of Borderlands 4 on its primary platforms, a Switch 2 announcement down the road becomes a reasonable expectation rather than a pipe dream. Keep an eye on post-launch patch notes - they'll tell you a lot about how quickly that conversation might progress.
