The Borderlands series has a long history of DLC offerings, both with new story campaigns/missions and new characters. But Borderlands 3 might be doing something a littler different when it comes to character DLC, according to Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford.

When asked about Borderlands 3’s DLC plans, Pitchford explains that his team’s analysis of player data suggests that the best approach is to offer more options with existing characters rather than new DLC characters. Where past games would add new vault hunters, Pitchford is suggesting that Borderlands 3’s DLC might add new abilities to Zane and Amara’s skill trees.

Of course, this isn’t an outright confirmation that Borderlands 3 won’t offer DLC characters, but it seems like that is the direction Gearbox Software is leaning. Fans were quick to point out that some of their favorite characters were added to Borderlands 2 after release and thus the developer could be missing out on an opportunity to bring players back. Krieg was an example often cited by fans.

On the other hand, the approach does make sense. Many players tend to invest in a single character throughout the Borderlands story campaign and don’t try out any of the others. What’s more, switching to a completely new character after the DLC add-on releases is unlikely to be for everyone. For the most dedicated Borderlands fans, this is a whole new way to experience content but for others, it is going through the same content with a slightly different framework.

Even Gearbox seems to believe that the abilities can be used to differentiate the same “version” of one character. Whereas past Borderlands characters all had similar abilities because of their skill trees, Borderlands 3 forces the player to make choices, which can lead to a situation where the same character players completely different based on their spec. Two Zanes can offer two different play styles to the co-op group in Borderlands 3.

There are ways for Gearbox to balance things, like offering a character level boost with new content, but that is a discussion for a later time. Perhaps if enough Borderlands fans are vocal enough, Gearbox might decide to do a little bit of both: add new DLC characters and new abilities for existing characters.

Borderlands 3 releases September 13, 2019 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.