Why Borderlands 2 Still Lacks Cross-Platform Support in 2023

As a passionate Borderlands fan who has put hundreds of hours into the beloved loot shooter series, I often get asked by friends and fellow Vault Hunters why Borderlands 2 lacks cross-platform play in 2023. It‘s a fair question – with major games like Fortnite and Call of Duty making cross-play a standard feature, why does a popular last-gen game like Borderlands 2 still restrict players to their original platforms?

As someone entrenched in the games industry, I‘ve done some digging into the technical and business limitations that might explain why cross-platform multiplayer never came to Borderlands 2.

Outdated Code Makes Cross-Play Challenging

The biggest factor working against Borderlands 2 cross-play support is almost certainly its aging network infrastructure code and engine-level multiplayer integration.

Games today integrate platform-agnostic networking systems and friends functionality that despite running on radically different hardware, allow seamless connections across Windows PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. The ,matchmaking and social experience happens on the game software layer.

But by many insider reports, Borderlands 2 relies on older, more proprietary connectivity methods hardcoded into the engine itself. These work perfectly fine for multiplayer between players on the same platform. But were never designed to interface with competing consoles or storefronts.

Significant updates to match players across different Borderlands 2 platforms would likely require very deep code changes. And that level of effort makes little sense for an older title with no signs of getting further major updates.

Game Politics Restricted Cross-Play

Beyond just technical hurdles with the Borderlands 2 codebase itself, the gaming politics of 2012 also worked against any hopes of delivering a cross-platform multiplayer experience.

Back then, bitter rivalries still dominated the thinking of console platform holders like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Cross-play between competing platforms was taboo – executives saw any capabilities enabling players to connect across PlayStations, Xboxes, and Nintendo devices as relinquishing an exclusive advantage over their competitors.

This sadly restricted many popular games from being played across competing devices, even if no technical barriers stood in the way on the development side. Industry politics and anti-competitive corporate policies meant lonely single-platform islands for gamers on all sides.

Additionally, according to insider reports Sony even charged developers royalty fees if they wanted to activate cross-play in their games. So profits likely played a role in blocking Borderlands 2 cross-platform connectivity as well.

Other Business Factors Took Priority

Given the above obstacles around outdated code and draconian platform holder policies, building proper cross-play support into Borderlands 2 was likely never high on Gearbox Software‘s priority list following its initial 2012 launch.

Borderlands 2 already sold extremely well as a purely single-platform multiplayer experience – by January 2015 the game had shipped over 18 million copies. So dedicating significant resources to overhauling aging networking code likely didn‘t make good business sense absent external pressure.

Compounding matters even further, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel launched just 2 years later in 2014 and Borderlands 3 entered development shortly after that. With their focus on the next Borderlands games, and dedicating resources to the critical features those titles would need to succeed, cross-play support in previous franchise entries fell by the wayside.

The Social Experience Suffers Greatly

The unfortunate casualty in Borderlands 2‘s lack of cross-platform support is the dedicated player base that just wants to enjoy cooperative loot shooting mayhem with their friends – regardless of everyone‘s platform.

Games in the class-based cooperative shooter genre like Borderlands naturally encourage squad play with friends rather than random public matches. But in 2023, many gamers in the same friend group likely play across a combination PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC platforms.

Without cross-play support, Borderlands 2 players are severely limited in who they can play with. Existing players must stick to their original platform, while new gamers looking to play with friends may be excluded from even considering Borderlands 2 in the first place.

Borderlands 3 Offers Hope

The silver lining for Borderlands fans longing to play together across platforms is that the latest 2019 franchise entry, Borderlands 3, added full cross-play functionality in a 2021 update.

Borderlands 3 features seamless cross-play between competing PC platforms – games running on Valve‘s Steam can play cooperatively with those running on the Epic Games Store. And developer Gearbox has stated expanding support to also bridge console platforms is a top priority.

So while years of technical debt and outdated design decisions sadly left Borderlands 2 as a platform island, the future of the Borderlands franchise looks bright – finally enabling the cross-play functionality fans have requested to play with friends on any device they own.