Fans fume as Borderlands boss Randy Pitchford snaps back at complaints with 'code your own engine'

Gamers are finding it difficult to engage with Borderlands 4 developers over the game's PC issues as Gearbox's development chief has started to get seriously snarky with their attempts to communicate.

Borderlands 4 is currently trying to showcase its impressive new leaps in gameplay, but it's facing a bit of a struggle. Despite the new story featuring fresh adventurers and movement tech that has made the franchise more liberating than ever, the game is, according to players, struggling on PC in several ways, with complaints about FOV, performance and a general lag that makes it feel incredibly under-optimised for players who expect a top-notch experience.

It's a real pity, especially as the game has so many thrilling features to offer players, and each of them have been overshadowed by online uproar. Players are practically at loggerheads with the team itself as they try to access the Borderlands 4 Twitch drops, reporting that their SHiFT accounts simply aren't connecting in the way that they need to.

And now after Randy Pitchford's initial PC performance response, it's clear that the company is making an effort to counteract the negative press that it's receiving. Things seem to be going from bad to worse, as the figurehead of the Borderlands franchise has taken to Twitter to chart an impressive meltdown that attempts to shift the blame back onto the players of the new game.

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Randy Pitch-a-fit

The Gearbox development chief, Randy Pitchford, has sparked a fresh controversy over Borderlands 4, as he took to Twitter to hit back at players seeking solutions for their PC gaming issues. After repeated attempts to silence disgruntled players, one gamer decided to confront Pitchford directly on a tweet thread, leading to a fiery exchange.

Twitter user

Or just an idea here make your game look good without relying on ai upscale

— colecypher (@Colecypher) September 13, 2025

criticised Pitchford, suggesting that he should have focused on creating a game that looks good without relying on AI upscaling.

Code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please. We will be your customer when you pull it off. The people doing it now are clearly dumb and don’t know what they’re doing and all the support and recommendations and code and architecture from the world’s greatest hardware…

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 13, 2025

, Pitchford retorted: "Code your own engine and show us how it's done, please. We will be your customer when you pull it off.

"The people doing it now are clearly dumb and don't know what they're doing and all the support and recommendations and code and architecture from the world's greatest hardware companies and tech companies working with the world's greatest real time graphics engine coders don't know what you seem to know."

This less than gracious approach to addressing players, even those who are being somewhat sharp-tongued, is not what anyone expects from the figurehead of a company they're seeking answers from. He's jumping from tweet to tweet, offering to provide "help tuning with your personal specification" (as seen in

You ok? Do you have a PC that is above minimum specification that cannot get 30fps in Borderlands 4? Need any help?

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) September 16, 2025

), which only seems to further infuriate the most irate players, provoking fans under the pretence of being helpful.

It's evident what's unfolding here, and it spells trouble for both the players and the game as a whole. As numerous players have highlighted, Pitchford's approach is becoming a significant factor in the game's overall launch. If Borderlands 4 aims to uphold its good name amidst its PC playability issues, then it needs to devise a more agreeable solution than this.