Handsome Jack was easily one of the better aspects of Borderlands 2 and, though I personally still didn’t get on too well with the game, he brightened up my playthrough with a fair few chuckles at his more outlandish comments.
So, seeing as 2K Australia have already made Claptrap, another fan favourite, playable within The Pre-Sequel, it logically follows that they’d take another major NPC and make them playable too. Handsome Jack is going to be the first DLC character for the game. Well… sort of.
You see, Polygon are reporting that it won’t be the actual Handsome Jack, but will instead be one of his surgically altered body double. I guess that makes him pretty close to being Handsome Jack, but still allows for Jack to be an NPC within the game without collapsing the space-time continuum in around us all.
The new character is going to be part of the season pass which will contain four DLC packs in total, and will presumably be just a part of one of these. The Pre-Sequel itself is coming to PS3, 360 and PC on 17th October.
Source: Polygon
MrYd
Will the inevitable PS4 version come with all the DLC? Sometime next year? As much fun as both the Borderlands games have been, I think I’ll be picking this one up later. A PS4 version seems likely, and a PS3 version with at least half the DLC included seems pretty much 100% certain.
Forrest_01
Has a PS4 version been confirmed as yet? I know they said they may look at it, but dependant on what exactly?
If sales on PS3 do well (enough demand to warrant a port)? Perhaps if sales on PS3 do poorly (not enough demand on last gen to demand a port)? Who knows?
Personally, I would love a Borderlands on PS4. In fact, if they are waiting, why not port & optimise the whole series including this & pop it on a disc (two if you need to)? I’d buy that for a dollar!
MrYd
Why would they confirm a PS4 version now? They’ve got a PS3 version to sell. Maybe some people will buy the PS3 version and upgrade to the PS4 version later. Not going to do that if they say “there’s a PS4 version coming next year”, are they?
PS3 sales can only be used as an excuse for whatever they want to do. Good sales? People want the game, so let’s do a PS4 version. Or lots of people have bought the game, so a PS4 version isn’t going to sell. Bad sales? Not enough interest in the game for a PS4 version. Or everyone wants a PS4 version instead, so they aren’t buying the PS3 version.
If a PS4 version doesn’t appear in the next year, I’ll just have to get the PS3 version then. It’ll probably have lots of extra content included by that point too.
Forrest_01
Your second paragraph was what I was kind of getting at – What for them is the tipping point for them to decide that a PS4 version is a good idea? As you say, depending on what they are basing it on & how they take it could well depend on whether it sees the light of day on newer consoles. It may not. Only they will know that I suppose.
I do get what you are saying about not wanting to ruin sales by announcing another version, but there are still people who only have one or the other console & some who have both. Those that have PS3’s will just buy this version regardless – If they haven’t picked up a PS4 yet, I doubt this would be the game that would push them over the edge. Those who have both have the choice, but like me, may be waiting to hear whether there is a PS4 version at least planned rather than a vague “we might”. Those who just have a PS4 are probably awaiting news on whether they will get to play too or if they are going to miss out entirely.
Not saying what they are doing is wrong of course, I just like clarity in my purchasing decisions. :)
MrYd
The really annoying thing is, isn’t the PS4 supposed to be a lot easier to port things to? If there’s a PC version coming, the work needed to get that running on a PS4 should be a lot less than getting it running on a PS3, with it’s weird architecture.
There’s over 80 million PS3s out there (well, possibly less than that still in working order), but there’s another 10 million PS4s too. And potentially half of those are owned by people who never had a PS3. Or who sold their PS3, for some weird reason.
Why would they not give those 5m potential customers the game? People who might then go on to buy the proper Borderlands 3 whenever it happens.
I can see one of 3 things happening. 1 – we get the Pre-sequel on the PS4 next year (maybe with DLC included). 2 – we get a Borderlands Trilogy on the PS4 next year (which I would instantly order the second it’s announced). Or 3 – it’s really just DLC for Borderlands 2 that they’ve decided to sell separately, for more money, with even more DLC. It’s just DLC that they got a bit carried away with. In which case a PS4 version might not happen.
Smallville2106
Surely people want more than just ports of ps3 games for their ps4s? How many ports and indie games do we need?
I didn’t buy my ps4 to play indie games and games that I can play on my ps3 for cheaper.
Forrest_01
Yeah, but i’ll take a port of this whilst they are developing Borderlands 3!
MrYd
There’s quite a big market for the ports though. Sales for the last generation are over 80m PS3s and a similar amount of XBox 360s (with a slight lead for the PS3 by now?).
Some people will have both, but a huge number won’t. Some of those sales are due to old machines dying.
And didn’t Sony claim large numbers of PS4 owners that didn’t have PS3s? By the end of the current generation, we could have tens of millions of PS4 owners that couldn’t play those old games. And some that missed out for various reasons (too many games and so something got passed by?)
There might even be a handful of XBone users that want to play them too.
Ports of older games are probably a good thing. We’ve already got games available on the PS3 and PS4, and a similar thing happened with the PS2 and PS3. More games for the PS4 means more sales. And so more PS4 only games, eventually.
And there were some great PS3 games that deserve to be tarted up a bit and enjoyed by even more people. We’ve had some recent games ported to the PS4, but the best games of the whole PS3 generation haven’t been revisited yet. The ones that could be improved a lot, if the effort is put into it.
There’s a danger people start to see the PS4 as having too many old games though, I guess. Maybe if they hadn’t released the thing too early, there might have been time to get some new games. And for Sony to finish building the OS. (Which is a bit weird, because while it probably should have been released a good 6 to 12 months later, it’s sold silly amounts)