Borderlands 3 Could Have Had a Foot Gun on the Cover

While it's been known that Borderlands 3, the upcoming loot-shooter video game sequel from Gearbox Software, attempted to replicate the iconic covers of the previous two games before ultimately settling on a different direction, it had been reported that this meant the company had tried out some kind of three-armed psycho on the cover. It seems, however, that Gearbox had apparently gone in for something a little more "foot gun" and less "finger gun."

For those that might not know, the covers for Borderlands and Borderlands 2 feature a psycho, arguably the most iconic enemy in the franchise, putting finger guns to his head with the corresponding exit wound showing a splattering of game art. The first cover had one such splatter and finger gun, and the second had two. The third cover, it stood to reason, should have three, but how does one put three finger guns on a cover when the psycho only has two hands?

"Trust me, we figured it out," Borderlands 3 art director Scott Kester reportedly told Game Informer in an interview earlier this year when asked about the potential cover. "I'm trying to get it as an alternate cover, maybe we can throw one in as the Naked Gun kind. We've done a lot. But honestly, we thought this game needed to shift gears a little bit, so we thought [the Borderlands 3 art] was the way to do that."

While it's unclear if Kester ever explicitly said the psycho had three hands, it's certainly how it got reported at the time. The developer recently exhibited at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, however, and included a Museum of Mayhem which featured concept art for the game, including alternate cover art. "Wonder if we tried fitting a third finger gun into the box art?" the company's blog post about the exhibit states. "Wonder no more!"

Wonder no more, indeed, as new photos of that exhibit have emerged, showing a variety of different key art and alternate covers -- including one where, instead of a third finger gun, there is a foot gun. Yes, a foot gun; it would appear that the psycho has contorted to twist its foot (or potentially some other unfortunate soul's foot?) into the correct position to maintain the cover schema.

What do you think about the alternate covers? Would you have preferred to have seen something like this on the main cover, or are you happy with what's there now? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter @rollinbishop to talk all things gaming!

Borderlands 3 is scheduled to release on September 13th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the title right here.

[H/T Game Informer]