'Borderlands Science' Seemingly Cut From Borderlands 4, Or So It's Assumed...

Back in April of 2020, Gearbox Software partnered with the team at the Microsetta Initiative to create a mini-game that directly contributed to helping with both the organization, and alignment of microbial DNA sequences found within human microbiome research.

You can read the full paper here.

For the people actually playing the game within Borderlands 3, it looked nothing like the dry, boring research it was helping to support. This was all thanks due to an approach known as Citizen Science, where scientific researchers try to find ways for everyday users to contribute to real scientific projects.

In the case of the Borderlands 3 Arcade Machine, it worked largely similar to the gameplay of Candy Crush, something even your Grandma is probably familiar with.

And this update for the game actually worked. A paper published back in April of 2024 indicated that since the implementation of Borderlands Science in Borderlands 3, more than 4.4 Million Users helped collect more than 135 Million puzzle solutions. Researchers then took those solutions, and used them to refine the alignment of roughly 1 Million microbial 16S rRNA sequences.

For those just here for the cool shit: They did cool shit.

Not only was this project a massive success for Gearbox, it would appear that there were early plans for this project to make a return in Borderlands 4, which released back in 2025.

Leftover assets within the game files for BL4 indicate that not only was Borderlands Science present at one point, but it also existed within the safefouse for each major area within the game.

It's unclear how early (or late) into development this feature was cut. It's also unclear whether or not this feature is still planned for Borderlands 4 in the future.

This information isn't new either. These files have sat dormant within the files since launch, with no changes made to them, nor have they at any point been removed. It certainly feels like a memorial of a long fallen idea, as other unrelated leaked information found through the files has since been actively removed, unlike this information.

To lean further credibility to this information, there are also references internally to a potential Arcade Chest, which we are (to my knowledge) yet to see present within the game. Not only that, but it would also appear that this chest had/has an extremely high chance for great loot.

If this is future content however, it's worth pointing out that at the LA Fan Fest event prior to launch, a Borderlands Science machine was found sitting alongside other series themed set pieces.

It's not out of the question that someone could have shipped the machine to the event, under the assumption that Borderlands Science would be making it into the game.

Regardless of what became of this idea, I'd certainly love to see it in Borderlands 4 at some point. While it may not be the most thrilling content, it's clearly something which has helped humans, and that's pretty damn sick.

I also just love arcade machines...

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