Trivia / Borderlands

• Colbert Bump: Gave a little one to Cage the Elephant, the indie band who recorded the game's theme song.
• Defunct Online Video Games: GameSpy, which provided the online multiplayer for the PC version, ceased operations in 2013. You can still play LAN multiplayer, though, and the Steam version has since been updated so that it uses Steamworks for multiplayer.
• Follow the Leader: The developers have cited many influences to the game, even saying at one point this game stemmed from wanting to make "Fallout 3, but with co-op". Of course, in the end, there were many differences from that basic statement. It's more Fallout 3 meets... a lot of stuff.
• Genre Popularizer: This game popularized the Looter Shooter genre.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked" by Cage the Elephant is the opening theme.
  • "No Heaven" by DJ Champion is the closing theme.
• Refitted for Sequel: In the Game Informer article, they mentioned being able to disassemble guns into their parts so you could build your own super guns out of them. While not verbatim, the idea was later rescued for Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! in the form of the Grinder machine.
• Sleeper Hit: Gearbox Software had some minor hits before this game to their name, such as the Opposing Force Expansion Pack for Half-Life and the Brothers in Arms series, but it wasn't until the release of this game that the company would have their Cash-Cow Franchise that's still rolling. Even then, it took several months and lots of word of mouth in order to make the series the huge success it became, and the series wasn't too heavily promoted, being an original franchise from a relatively unknown studio becoming universally acclaimed was unexpected, to say the least. As Randy Pitchford noted in one interview, the game actually sold better as time went on, compared to the usual pattern of a burst of sales at release, and it was all thanks to word of mouth advertising. This led to the sequel, Borderlands 2, getting a bigger budget and proper advertising, and the franchise finally exploding in popularity and becoming Gearbox's flagship series.
• Trope Codifier: For the Looter Shooter genre.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Played with and averted. It may sound foolish to go on the hidden boat in Treacher's Landing and shoot a few barrels, but then something actually happens. It's Tannis suddenly riding around the area on a fish, with unique music to boot.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Early trailers suggested a story-based, Real Is Brown FPS with RPG elements and Procedural Generation. It was changed to a colorful, Rule of Fun FPS/RPG with focus on More Dakka.
  • There was an entire story that was mostly cut out and the art-style underwent a total overhaul unusually late in development. All the original concept art went unused, which actually led to one of the devs (the art director) leaving the game industry forever.
  • Helena Pierce also played a prominent role in the trailer, indicating that she was originally supposed to have a much larger role in the original storyline for the game itself, rather than being just one of many sidequest givers with almost no input into the main plot.
  • The main game was supposed to feature a lot more of cutscenes, but most of them were cut out for the final product.

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