Opinion: Gearbox Software’s Presentation at PAX East was Disappointing

Gearbox Software released some new updates and games to their lineup at the PAX East convention the other day. They used about an hour to muffle around the stage while trying to present their cool new games. Some news was explaining the teaser trailer that happened the day before the event. They also took some time to gather the developers of Borderlands 2 VR to announce some updates to the game.

Then, finally, they announced the big one. Borderlands 3. Finally, they announced the game everyone in the audience was wanting for years. The trailer for Borderlands 3 looked amazing. Old and new characters in the game were there and better than ever. That was not the issue for me. The new Borderlands 3 trailer was fantastic with all the right amount of hype and flair. The big issue I had with their time at PAX East 2019 was the whole presentation itself from Randy Pitchford and the team at Gearbox. It reminded me of how a high school student who had a presentation to do that day took the time on the morning bus ride to write down what they wanted to say for that day’s presentation. It was unorderly, unorganized, and simply disordered.

Pitchford and the team at Gearbox make fantastic games and are even helping other studios by funding them and passing on their own knowledge to the developers. What they didn’t do so well in the one-hour time slot was presenting the new games they had to offer. Right from the beginning, Pitchford was not prepared with what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. It was a very laissez-faire approach to the whole thing. The showcase seemed like there was very little or no preparation at what was being said and how it was presented. Granted, PAX East has not been known for grand reveals of the newest in games from big studios. But, the way Gearbox took to reveal their new board game, the new updates to old games, and Borderlands 3 was definitely not the way.

The presentation went something like this. The teaser trailer was played and then examined by Pitchford. Along with showing off the teaser trailer, Gearbox revealed the Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party card game. Tiny Tina’s Robot Tea Party is a new board game based around Tina Tiny herself and the robots she has made. The board game is a creation behind three different studios. The three studios were Gearbox, Nerdvana, and XYZ Labs. The game has you complete an outfit for Claptrap, the witty robot from the series. The game has action cards that will either defend your creation of Claptrap or destroy other players version of their own Claptrap. The game is meant to be played with two to five players.

Next, the team at Gearbox announced some updates they have been working on to Borderlands 2 VR. Borderlands 2 VR came out last year in December of 2018. The game works with the PlayStation VR headset. The community of players for the game went to Twitter to voice their own opinions. The team at Gearbox listened and offered updates to the game with the biggest news being you can now use the aim assist controller from the PlayStation Move collection. The support for the game was much needed for the community. The other updates to the game include all the DLC from Borderlands 2 in the VR version. 

The team then presented a current-gen version of the OG Borderlands. The original Borderlands is now going to be for the current generation of consoles with all the needed support. The game will include four-player co-op as well as a minimap for players to see what’s near them. This version of the game will include all the DLC from the first Borderlands. These were heavily requested by the community. The Borderlands Game of the Year Edition is set to be released sometime in April of 2019.

Then they showed off the trailer for Borderlands 3. The trailer, trying to be shown off in 4k and ultra-high definition, stuttered and stumbled to perform. Three attempts went by trying to make it work with small talk in between each to help along the misery of the technical difficulties. The third time was the charm after admitting they had to tone it down to get it to work. Honestly, they should have just stated the trailer is up and running on their site or on their Youtube channel instead of trying to stream it from Youtube on the wifi from PAX East. A copy of it in 4k on a USB stick would’ve worked better.

Borderlands 3 was not shown with an expected release date. The team didn’t go into too much detail as to what the story is or who you get to play as either. The original vault hunters are there as far as I could tell from the trailer. The villains were seemingly revealed as well. This time the main villains are a set of twins called the Calypso twins. The individual names for Calypso twins were not confirmed by Randy and the team at Gearbox. Information was presented saying there to be a cult of worshipers, who idolize the twins. Their goal in the new game was not publicized either at the panel.

All in all, the display of the new updates and games were great. The showmanship of it all needed some work. Randy Pitchford could’ve used the notes from Apple’s recent press conference a few days before. There has to be a marketing team from Gearbox to handle this kind of event. From what I saw there was not. To Gearbox I say, showing off cool games is one thing but presenting them is another. Hopefully, Gearbox gets it right, maybe even at E3 this June.

What did you think of the presentation? Were you impressed by the Gearbox announcements? Are you excited for Borderlands 3? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned to The Nerd Stash for all of your nerdy news and needs!

Matthew Karambelas

Hi Everyone! This is Matthew Karambelas here and I am a content creator for The Nerd Stash. I write about video game news, the entertainment industry, and anything else that interests me. Whenever I do have some free time I like to listen to podcasts, take care of dog, and stream some amazing content on my Twitch channel. Any comments and critiques are welcomed to make me a better creator of content. Thanks and keep on reading!