Following the highly anticipated reveal of Borderlands 3, things have not been smooth sailing for Gearbox Software, as the company has seen a number of controversies pop up in the last week. For many, the biggest one is with the timed PC exclusivity agreement on the Epic Games Store, which resulted in fans review bombing previous Borderlands games on Steam in protest. On top of this, Troy Baker revealed earlier this week he was disappointed and shocked that he wasn't brought back to voice his character from Tales from the Borderlands for this latest installment.

Following this, Randy Pitchford, President and CEO of Borderlands 3 developer Gearbox Software, recently responded to a fan asking why Baker wasn't brought back. Surprisingly, Pitchford painted a completely different picture of the situation, admitting that the Gearbox audio director did reach out for Baker to come back, but the voice actor turned the offer down. Pitchford then cryptically says that he ultimately doesn't think any of this matters based on how Rhys appears in-game, prompting fans to judge for themselves once the game comes out.

What's odd is that this version of the story is a complete 180 from what Troy Baker recently described at an event in Australia. The veteran voice actor revealed that he was shocked to see Rhys appear in the debut trailer and sounded blindsided that the character he brought to life was recast without him knowing. It will be interesting to see how big of a role Rhys ultimately has, as Pitchford's comment makes it seem as if the character is perhaps just a very quick cameo in the Borderlands 3 story or potentially doesn't have much in the way of speaking lines.

Whether this is a case of two people with their wires crossed or not, Borderlands 3 doesn't appear to be resting on the mechanics and features that made the franchise popular in the first place. As this genre has evolved since the last few games in the franchise launched, Gearbox is making a few quality of life updates to certain mechanics such as loot.

No longer is loot shared between all players, as players can flip on a switch that makes every piece of loot that drops theirs to get, preventing other players from stealing. Of course, this setting can be switched off in Borderlands 3, too, which would revert this system back to the old ways where ninja looting became a big issue.

Borderlands 3 launches on September 13, 2019 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Randy Pitchford - Twitter