GearboxIf there’s one thing we can all agree on at this point, it’s that Borderlands 3 is going to have an awful lot of guns in it, and that it is inherently a very good thing. Would it even be a Borderlands game without Lots Of Guns, after all?
We know that Gearbox’s long-awaited threequel will have approximately “45 bajillion guns” according to the trailer, which was definitely lying. The actual number is closer to over 1 billion when you factor in all the different varieties and types, which is obviously still mighty impressive.
Amidst the guns that fire volcanoes, the guns that deal radiation damage, and the guns that grow legs to chase around enemies and hurl insults at them, there are a ton of sound effects to go with. There are, apparently, 25 times more weapon sound effects in Borderlands 3 than were present in Borderlands 2, so yeah… that’s a lot.
According to Gearbox Software senior sound designer Joshua Davidson, Borderlands 3 currently boasts 7,500 individual .wav files with even more on the way. For comparison, Borderlands 2 had a tawdry 300.
I can only imagine what a day at work is like for Joshua, but I suspect it’s inherently more bizarre than most. It’s unclear how many of those 7,500 individual files are dedicated the gun that insults people, but I like to think they’re waiting to get someone like Danny DeVito in to record lines for that particular weapon.
Well, now I’ve put that thought into my head I’m never going to be able to get rid of it. Awesome.
So yeah….#Borderlands3 is currently sitting at just over 7,500 individual .wav files for the weapon firing sounds.
For perspective, BL2 shipped a little over 300 .wav files to cover all the guns and their manufacturers.
And yes, we're still not done. Pew pew! #GameAudio
— Joshua Davidson 🎮 #Borderlands3 (@JoshuaDav) April 26, 2019
The chances are most people won’t even notice the differences between all the gun sounds when they’re in the heat of battle playing through Borderlands 3, but it’s important to point out the huge amount of work Davidson and his team are doing to make the game as immersive as possible.
As Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford himself said after announcing the game on stage last month; “The team has put so much effort into this. It’s obscene the amount of effort that goes into a Borderlands game. Our deepest wish is to do everything we can make a worthy successor.”
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.