Borderlands games are always better enjoyed with friends, so it’s awful that players in the latest entry, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, had to fly alone — at least if they’re trying to play online or use the ballyhooed crossplay feature. For the past two weeks, the latest in Gearbox series Loot-shooters has been having some serious server issues. This is not exactly a surprise. Multiplayer online games start in various “established” situations all year round and the Borderlands series itself does not have the best history. But it is a little different from your typical case of server problems. For one thing, for sure, while the servers are down, they are not wrapped up in a five-alarm firewall that generates titles like the famous boot windows, for example, Outriders or Diablo III. For another, while the problems still exist, the official channels of the game have strangely remained silent on the subject. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, released late last month for Xbox, PlayStation and PC, is the first Borderlands game to feature full crossplay. Like previous Borderlands games, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands facilitates online teams through Gearbox’s exclusive online service, Shift. You can also use the service to redeem “Shift Codes”, disposable coupons that give you a rare tool in the game. (A kind soul has assembled a Twitter robot announcing availability and circulating Shift codes.) You can track Shift status via its official Twitter account. On March 25, the official release day of Wonderlands, the account noted how, although players can see a notification saying they have been logged out of Shift, it’s really good. is just a wrong pop-up. Three hours later, Gearbox said it had noticed “reports” of “instability” and spent the next few days documenting its efforts to improve functionality. On March 29, Gearbox released a bug fix on all platforms. As of March 31, the studio said “most players” were clear, with “limited cases of disconnection” during the worst holidays in the world. “We have seen some reports of players disconnecting from the online game,” the account’s most recent tweet, released on April 2, states. “If these problems persist, please restart your game!” Unfortunately, restarting your game does not always seem to do the trick. In response to the account tweet, players say that restarts do not fix connectivity issues and when they do, it is only a temporary solution. (Beyond the joke: One player even pointed out how they could not submit a ticket through the Shift support page.) In the game subreddit, there is a thread that closes to 1,000 comments, where players complain about how they can not play with friends on the internet. Connection problems seem to become more pronounced during crossplay sessions, but they are still not exactly smooth with traditional matchmaking on the same platform. Earlier this week, for example, I had fun with my colleague Zack Zwiezen, and we both played the Xbox Series X with wired connections. We went about 75 percent through the learning section before Zack disappeared into the ether. We could not play a game again for the rest of the night. Zack also told me how he has serious crossplay issues while playing with his fiancée on PC and Xbox. Often they can not start a game, he said, even though they both play on the same modem. In the rare cases they can do one, it is delayed and out of sync AF. Jacques told me how a player would kill enemies, watch them die and make them retreat as if nothing had happened. Hi, at least there is a splitscreen! Gearbox representatives declined to answer questions about the file and directed Kotaku to Twitter status Shift.
