The next game in the Borderlands series might end up with a weapon with roots lot closer to home than the usual Pandora-based guns. The franchise first made a name for itself through its extremely fun co-op shooter gameplay and eye-catching cel shaded style with the original game's release back in 2009, before upping the ante with the hugely successful Borderlands 2 in 2012.
From then on, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and the Telltale Games developed narrative-centric spin-off Tales from the Borderlands have been released, but fans have been eagerly awaiting more news on the series. Although there have been plenty of hints that Borderlands 3 is on the way, the third numbered Borderlands game has yet to be officially confirmed by Gearbox Software, yet it seems as though it's a matter of when not if at this moment in time.
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Ahead of the game's official confirmation, however, fans may well have already received notification of one of the weapons that will be included in the game. Recently, Elon Musk made some waves after revealing an official Boring Company flamethrower, with the device selling extremely well online and picking up plenty of interest from people across the world. One of those people was Randy Pitchford of Gearbox Software, who took to Twitter to announce that Elon Musk's flamethrower would appear in the next Borderlands.
Musk seems to be on board with this plan, if his one-word "sure" reply is anything to go by, so there's the chance that this tongue-in-cheek Twitter exchange could turn into a fun little in-joke in the next Borderlands game itself. It's certainly better than one of the other potential outcomes of this flamethrower being revealed, which is Elon Musk secretly creating a zombie apocalypse.
One of the positives of using this flamethrower in the next Borderlands game is that it would certainly give a good frame of reference from a prop perspective for the in-development Borderlands movie. Gearbox CEO Pitchford gave an update at E3 2017 to confirm that Borderlands and Duke Nukem movies are on the way, and it will certainly be interesting to find out whether these video game adaptations really work.
However, the eyes of most fans will be firmly fixed on the official confirmation of Borderlands 3. Whether it includes Musk's flamethrower or not, the game will no doubt end up jumping to the top of many a gamer's list of most-wanted titles, so here's hoping that official announcement comes sooner rather than later.