Borderlands 3 – New Social, Streaming And Accessibility Features Revealed
Aidan O'Brien 
During Guardian Con last weekend, Gearbox and 2K held a panel where they discussed essential features that will be coming to Borderlands 3. The group covered social, streaming, and accessibility features for the upcoming installment in the long-running series.
On the social front, the return of dueling was confirmed, with a new twist. Free-for-all Dueling allows for a 1v1v1v1 competitive fight between you and your friends. The game will also have rich Discord integration, activity group-based matchmaking, and will also have asynchronous matchmaking, meaning you can play content while the game finds players for you that are interested in the same material.
As far as Streaming goes, we knew about the ECHOcast Twitch extension, but they shared more details about additional functionality. Viewers will be able to check a streamer’s loadout and skill trees, and will also have a chance to win in-game loot while you watch on Twitch. Gearbox revealed that viewers would be able to impact the streamer’s game, spawning in specific events if certain conditions happen.
On the accessibility front, it appears crucial to Gearbox that everyone can play Borderlands 3. Players can fully remap all controls, whether you use mouse and keyboard, or a controller, and regardless of the platform, you play on. The game is compatible with Xbox’s Adaptive Controller as well. Players can control the size and opacity of text, and the game comes with a variety of color-blind options.
The game will have a new pinging system, creating secure communication with partners without microphones. Pinging enemies and loot marks them on the world, and the minimap, making communication much easier for players.
Borderlands 3 is shaping up to be an exciting chapter in the series although many are curious if the game can bring a new feeling to proceedings, or if it’s going to remain much of the same from previous installments.
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