Riddlemaster Randy Pitchford claims the Borderlands 4 teaser has'several secret'

The Borderlands 4 teaser shown at Gamescom's Opening Night Live is many things. It's a confirmation of a rumored second game, a reveal that was forced to be made after the franchise's box office flop, and, according to Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford a clever brain-tickler.

Pitchford tweeted after the teaser aired that it contained "several secret" which he claimed he hadn't yet seen fans discover. This is a notable clarification for two reasons. First, fans immediately began to analyze the teaser frame-by-frame. Pitchford began responding to these analyses almost as soon they began. (Randy loves to tweet.

What could these secrets be? Let's start by going through the teaser's beats. The teaser begins with a moon that warps into space. This looks like Elpis, which was the moon of Pandora in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Lilith "sealed it" at the end Borderlands 3 by using the same tell-tale symbol of a phoenix. It appears that Lilith teleported the moon and caused it to collide into a mysterious planet's cloaking fields in the teaser.

Some fans believe that the first secret of the teaser happens only seconds into its running time. Twitter user @Primidian pointed out that you can see a streak of something crashing into Elpis's surface just moments after it emerges through the fiery wormhole. This could be Lilith, who launched her Siren magic at Elpis in Borderlands 3's final moments.

The teaser ends with some ARG shite. In the last few seconds of the teaser, an orange face is flashed overlaid with Vault symbol and then a series alien glyphs. Many fans have guessed that the face could be Handsome Jack, a series antagonist who had this same symbol on his face at one time in a similar position to what is seen in the teaser.

Pitchford, who seems to think that letting a mystery stand on its own is for chumps has responded by tweeting "something far more sinister and dangerous." My guess is that he's trying to be coy and it's bothJack andsomething even worse. We'll just have to wait and watch.

Redditor pskought believes the glyphs are a substitute cipher for "HE IS WATCHING", and "BREAK OUT." If this is accurate, then the first bit might be a reference The Watcher, who was a mysterious Eridian predecessor race survivor who appeared in the Pre-Sequel, but whose motives are still unclear. If The Watcher has been manipulating events in the Borderlands games, we may be "breaking free" of his machinations - or at least trying to do so before unleashing another alien horror.

What other secrets could the teaser contain? Can we figure out what this mysterious planet is? Can we figure out what the robotic arm is doing to remove the bandit mask from its crater. Pitchford may know for sure, but it's not likely.

Borderlands 4 will be released in 2025.