Gearbox's Randy Pitchford says Borderlands "ushered in a whole new genre" of looter shooters, and imitators get it wrong when they "twist it too far," unlike Gearbox: "We tend to commit to the bit"

Borderlands 4 trailer screenshot of Rafa around a bonfire.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is proud of Borderlands' legacy as father of the looter shooter genre, even if he says some of the more experimental games to follow in its influence "twist it too far."

Talking to GamesRadar+ at Gamescom 2025, Pitchford described the Borderlands concept as something of a hybrid between a shooter and an RPG, which, in fairness, is pretty much exactly what it is.