If you were hoping to blast through Pandora on Switch 2 anytime soon, pump the brakes. According to reporting by The Gamer, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has confirmed that Gearbox's Switch 2 port of Borderlands 4 won't move forward until the existing PC and console versions of the game are in a satisfactory state.
It's a surprisingly candid admission from a major publisher, and it signals that the current builds of Borderlands 4 aren't where the studio wants them to be. Rather than stretching development resources across multiple platforms simultaneously, the plan is to nail the core experience first before tackling the Nintendo port.
A quality-first approach - or a damage control strategy?
On one hand, this is the right call. Porting a live-service shooter to new hardware while the primary versions are still being patched into shape is a recipe for a messy launch on Switch 2. Nintendo's audience has gotten burned before by sloppy ports, and Gearbox presumably doesn't want Borderlands 4 to become another cautionary tale.
On the other hand, it does raise questions about the state of the game at launch. Publishers don't usually hold back platform announcements because everything is running smoothly. Zelnick's comments suggest there's meaningful work still to be done on the existing versions before Gearbox can confidently bring the looter-shooter to Switch 2 players.
Switch 2 is becoming a serious port destination
This news comes amid a broader wave of third-party publishers committing to Nintendo's latest hardware. The Switch 2 has clearly earned enough developer confidence to warrant ports of major titles, and Borderlands 4 landing on the platform eventually makes sense given the franchise's co-op DNA and the system's handheld capabilities.
Playing split-screen vault hunter mayhem on the go has obvious appeal. But that version of the game needs to be worth playing - and right now, it sounds like Gearbox has more pressing priorities to sort out before they get there.
There's no timeline attached to the Switch 2 version yet. How long that wait turns out to be will depend entirely on how quickly the team can address whatever issues are currently holding back the PC and console builds.
