Chinese FPS 'Nizhan Future' Releases Officially Licensed Borderlands Crossover

Chinese FPS 'Nizhan Future' recently released a Borderlands focused crossover, that appears to be officially licensed by 2K. The crossover happened as a part of Season 3, which was announced on July 2nd of last month.

- One mission is already playable and starts with you powering up a cannon that fires you onto the Handsome Jackpot casino. You fight your way through it, eventually breaking in to the vault and looting everything inside. The final boss is a golden bull that when injured can be used to charge into the ceiling, causing money to rain down on you

- Unique Handsome Jack boss battle that takes place on a giant chessboard in the VIP Tower, where you fight Handsome Jack board pieces through numerous encounters. Part of the fight is battling a giant Handsome Jack on a huge casino table

- Handsome Jackpot mission includes some form of slot machine mechanic you can roll for rewards

- Handsome Jack also seemingly serves as an NPC who can sell/upgrade cards for the player from the main menu

- The season adds a unique mission unique bosses that can be fought, and over 15 different enemies to encounter

- Borderlands cosmetics are also being added such as portraits for the characters

- Handsome Jack and Lilith are playable characters. Also seems there is a Handsome Jack and Agonizer 9000 boss fight in the game

- The season will add new skills for classes, including an action skill based off of Harlowe, Amon, and seemingly Loveless

- It seems there is a limited time event linked to this crossover, but it's not currently playable until September 11th, 2026. It's unclear why the original promotional image mentioned July 2nd.

Released last month, it seems this crossover flew largely under the radar. While the official details on this are slightly unclear, the crossover is a fully fledged implementation into the game. Players can fight in Borderlands locations such as the Handsome Jackpot, and even take on bosses from other games in the franchise, like Dry'l from Tiny Tina's Wonderlands.

In addition to this comes what appears to be a Lilith skin for one of the playable characters, and a host of Borderlands themed items that can all be earned in the game. Perhaps the most surprising part about this collaboration, is that it's entirely supported by 2K. It seems that following Borderlands 4's tremendous success after the showcase and fully fledged marketing campaign last year at BiliBili World, their attempt to grow Borderlands on the international market is well underway.

In the gameplay above, you can see what's clearly a level taking place on the Handsome Jackpot from Borderlands 3, followed by gameplay of the player fighting Dry'l from Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. If it wasn't already clear, Nizhan Future is a first person shooter game exclusive to chinese markets, though it might be possible for some determined players not based in china to get their hands on it.

Also present as part of this crossover are enemies you'd expect like the Psychos, and other stuff such as the Ammo Vendors present in the games, too. As far as crossovers go, this seems to be one of which a great deal of care was taken. There is even cel-shaded levels that can be played through, as shown in the gameplay below.

You can view the full intro for the season below. It certainly looks like it's stacked full of the content you'd expect from this kind of crossover, including a look at a giant Handsome Jack, and of course... Claptrap.

This is certainly up there with one of the better crossovers we've seen for this IP, arguably even beating out the collaboration with Fortnite as part of the marketing push for Borderlands 3. It's very interesting to see 2K allowing the Borderlands license to be used by other developers in this way, more specifically in the Chinese market. I do also wonder if this was a request made to them that they then granted, or if they approached the developers themselves about the possibility of working together.

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