Borderlands 4 dev says it's getting this beloved feature late — here's why it won't be at launch

At long last, and after much player questioning, Borderlands 4 developer Gearbox Software has confirmed that a very highly requested feature will be in the studio's latest entry in its popular looter shooter franchise. However, it won't be available when the game launches on September 12, and will be something fans have to wait for.

The feature in question is Photo Mode — a tool that allows players to capture cinematic screenshots of their gameplay, often with options like color grading filters, tweakable depth of field settings, letterboxing, and more. Photo Mode has increasingly become viewed as a staple feature as games have grown more and more graphically impressive over the years; thus, it's disappointing that it won't be in Borderlands 4 at launch.

Borderlands 4 creative director Graeme Timmins announced that the mode was coming on Tuesday morning, also revealing that it will be delayed until post-launch: "Hey guys, wanted to confirm that Photo Mode will be coming to Borderlands 4! It'll be a feature that we add in an update after the game launches," he wrote on social media.

Timmins went on to discuss the reason for Photo Mode's late release, explaining that Gearbox had to focus on finishing other parts of the game that were more important to moment-to-moment gameplay before it could move on to less crucial features.

"I had us prioritize polishing some other elements, more core to the moment-to-moment experience," he continued. "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."

For context, Borderlands 3 — the last mainline entry in the Borderlands series — launched with Photo Mode on PC only, with the feature coming to Xbox and PlayStation consoles about a month later. For the D&D-inspired 2022 spinoff Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, though, Photo Mode was available on all platforms right out of the gate.

It's because of that that I was hopeful we'd see the feature come to all versions of Borderlands 4 at launch — especially since with its use of Unreal Engine 5, it's the most graphically impressive Borderlands game yet (it's also the most demanding, with some pretty steep PC system requirements).

Gearbox's reasoning here is sound, however. As awesome as Photo Mode is, it's not something that should be prioritized over more gameplay-relevant systems that need to be polished for the game's full release. And hey, with any luck, it's something that will come quickly after launch.

Borderlands 4 itself is one of 2025's biggest upcoming Xbox games and upcoming PC games, and has some serious potential to stand as one of its best Xbox games and best PC games as well. It features four new Vault Hunter characters to play as and follows the events of Borderlands 3, with the game set on Kairos — a war-torn planet ruled by a dictator called The Timekeeper.

Borderlands 4 is scheduled to release on September 12, 2025 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch 2 for $69.99. The Deluxe Edition is priced at $99.99, while the most expensive version, the Super Deluxe Edition, clocks in at $129.99.