Gearbox confirms Borderlands 4 will get photo mode in a post-launch update: “We’ve always planned for it”

Borderlands 4 will have a photo mode after all – it’s just not coming until a post-launch update. After the game’s apparent lack of photo mode started making the rounds on social media, the devs at Gearbox have come forward to confirm it’s coming.

“Hey guys, wanted to confirm that Photo Mode will be coming to Borderlands 4,” creative director Graeme Timmins says in a tweet. “It’ll be a feature that we add in an update after the game launches.” The official Gearbox account has reiterated the same message.

It’s unclear exactly where the idea that the game wouldn’t have photo mode came from, but it became a talking point among the fandom on social media this week. For some fans, it’s a critical tool for slowing down and zooming in on your damage numbers – though Gearbox says there will be better ways to evaluate your DPS – and the implication it might be missing was enough to get modder EpicNNG committing to trying to mod the feature in.

In the end, mods won’t be necessary after all. But why is photo mode getting delayed from the game’s initial launch? “I had us prioritize polishing some other elements, more core to the moment-to-moment experience,” Timmins says in a follow-up tweet. “We’ve always planned for it, and had it tasked up, we just needed to spend a bit more time on things that would directly impact QoL of playing the game.”

Borderlands 4 doesn’t have a minimap, but it’s getting an optional combat radar after all following feedback from “the real fans who sincerely want the best for the game.”