How many weapons are in Borderlands 2?

Borderlands, which uses a procedural system to randomly generate loot, holds the Guinness World Record for the most guns in a video game: a whopping 17.75 million.

So, how many guns does Borderlands 2, out in September, have?

More than Borderlands has, Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford told Eurogamer. But exactly how many, Pitchford doesn't know.

"Conceivably we could use the procedural system to tell us," he said.

"We made the claim lots of guns. I worked out there's actually more guns in Borderlands than in every other first-person shooter ever launched on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 all added together.

"And Borderlands 2 breaks that, and probably if you even included Borderlands 1. Probably! I haven't done the math."

Staff at the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition used a third-party tool created by fans to verify the number of guns in Borderlands.

Borderlands 2 ups the weapon count, but Pitchford was keen to point out that Gearbox has done its best to add variety to the weapons, so players should feel there are many different types of guns, not just slight variations of each type.

"There are enough where it doesn't matter," he said. "It really doesn't matter. If you imagine there's a lot more, but you also see the variety is wilder than Borderlands 1."

The increased variety of weapons - and equipment - is the result of a development budget that increased as Borderlands' sales grew over time.

"We were very fortunate," Pitchford explained. "When we started Borderlands 2 obviously we were very ambitious. But when you start a sequel, typically you have all these things you want to do and you make a big list. And as you develop it you figure out what your compromises are and you pair it down to what you end up shipping.

"But in Borderlands 2 we had this odd thing happen where, as we're beginning Borderlands 2 Borderlands 1 is on this odd trajectory where it's increasing momentum, not just launching and dying.

"And so, our budget's increasing and the investment's increasing as we're beginning the game. So not only did we get to do everything we wanted to, but we ended up doing a lot more."

The end result is, according to Pitchford, a game over twice as large as its predecessor.

"We started saying, the scope should be the same as Borderlands 1. It ends up the game's more than twice as large in terms of content and scope of play. All of it. That's really awesome. It's more than double the budget and starting from a point where we don't have to invent all the nuts and bolts of what the game mechanics are. We get to build on and iterate on this invention we already did.

"So it's all high momentum investment. It's awesome. I'm really excited about that."

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