Borderlands 3's Scrapped Cover Art Has Been Revealed

[vestan]

So at San Diego Comic Con, Gearbox opened up a small little Museum of Mayhem where they showcased scrapped ideas for key art/cover art. Below is their take on the "finger guns" cover convention that most hoped to see for Borderlands 3's cover.

Here's some other concept keyart that didn't make the cut. There's 15 of these, gonna try and see if I can get images of all of them.

Here's the actual final cover art we got in the end, I think it looks way better than all of the scrapped ones though that BORD3RLANDS one is kinda dope, hope it's a steelbook cover or something.

 

[Musubi]

Honestly the foot thing is way funnier than what they actually went with.

 

[Noppie]

That's funny.

 

[bluexy]

I think the new roses cover is decent, but this is the real cover.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Oh my lord there's so many missed opportunities for memes.

 

[JakeNoseIt]

I might like it more than the one they went with. Both are fine with me, though.

 

[Z-Beat]

That's good. That's pretty damn good

 

[Cross-Section]

Ah, the Quentin Tarantino cover

 

[SindbadtheSailor]

This is so much better

 

[Strangelove_77]

They picked the best one.

 

[iFirez]

Weirdly they used the old Bandit model for this too, that's not the new mask design and such in BL3; it's the older one from BL2 and Pre-Sequel. I still think the foot thing is damn funny though, but more than okay with the cover art we we up getting.

 

[Slayven]

They picked the best one.

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True, but the foot one is hilarious

 

[Z-Beat]

Weirdly they used the old Bandit model for this too, that's not the new mask design and such in BL3; it's the older one from BL3 and Pre-Sequel. I still think the foot thing is damn funny though, but more than okay with the cover art we we up getting.

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Yeah, I can't be mad at what they chose, but the foot one would've been great as well.

 

[Deleted member 82]

looks like they shot themselves with the foot here

 

[sabrina]

I'm glad we got to see these but the roses cover is fucking hilarious, so I'm glad it's what they ultimately went with.

 

[Faenix1]

Current cover is crap, wish it was any of these (except the baby one). More in-line with the first two.

 

[Roygbiv95]

I'm down with any of those. I love how the scrapped BL3 covers are more thoughtful than most AAA game final cover art.

 

[GameShrink]

I like the final cover better than any of these, but the foot one is great.

I guess they didn't want to lock themselves into that pattern, since Borderlands 5 would've ended up with an NSFW cover.

 

[Lant_War]

So glad they went with what we got

 

[ebugg]

LOL the baby one has me giggling

 

[Deleted member 7148]

The foot one is funny. The rest of them are kinda dumb. I think they made the right choice with the current one.

 

[skeezx]

yarr matey that be some shite cover art

 

[Dog]

They made the right choice, I LOVE the Christ one they went for.

 

[eXistor]

The foot one is fun, the rest sucks. I don't really like the final cover either; it's way too busy, the roses didn't need faces.

 

[RecRoulette]

I love the one they went with but I'd be perfectly okay with the foot one.

 

[Ryuhza]

The current cover is interesting, but it doesn't seem very Borderlands-y, for lack of elucidation.

Also, the foot is just funny.

 

[vestan]

Added more scrapped covers to the OP, seems it took Gearbox a long time to land on the one we got in the end.

 

[Van Bur3n]

The foot one wouldn't be too bad if they didn't reuse some of the same art from the BL2 cover, though I assume that could have been a mere placeholder for concept. They ultimately chose well for their final one.

 

[giancarlo123x]

We got the way better one for the release.

 

[vestan]

This one here is so fucking cool man

 

[Issen]

The one with the rifle head is great.

 

[formasymphonic]

lmao they should have kept the foot one purely for the wtf aspect.

 

[Thorn]

Whoever they have designing these needs to be on other games.

They're all fantastic.

 

[Qudi]

Christ>foot>baby

 

[Foxnull]

I vastly prefer the scrapped ones.

 

[Damn Silly]

The top one's great, but I can't blame them for thinking a bare foot is perhaps not the best way to appeal to those that may not previously know about the series (well, except to certain people).

And I agree, the "shadow" one would've made a great steelbook edition.

 

[Falchion]

I like the foot one a lot.

 

[A Ream of Paper]

The foot and sideview covers are nice, but I'm still happy with the final cover we're getting.

 

[Strangelove_77]

I will say that a lot of these are really good. Better than most game cover art.

 

[Deleted member 2229]

I hope they release these for sale later because so many of these are great

 

[Kneefoil]

They screwed up by not picking the one with the foot. It's too funny.

 

[MouldyK]

Why does one of the Final Cover Roses on the right have "Sirens".

It looks placeholder because all the other blank ones got nothing on.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

I like the foot being added to the two hands lol.

 

[Strat]

Should have been the foot

 

[vestan]

Why does one of the Final Cover Roses on the right have "Sirens".

It looks placeholder because all the other blank ones got nothing on.

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Oh, lol. All the hidden text and stuff on that image I posted was for a small ARG Gearbox and 2K had going on, just ignore it, it won't be there on the actual thing.

 

[jonathanp]

The foot one is great and I would been fine with that one, but the final cover is amazing so I'm glad they went with that.

As for the others:

The nursing one is interesting I suppose, but it's the one I like the least. I like the three finger gun covers since they fit with the first two games' covers. The cover which I assume is a bandit getting shot in the back of their head is ok.

 

[ChaserX]

Definitely prefer the foot one.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

heard hey scrapped all of this b/c there wasn't enough white people on the cover

 

[SparksterMeta0]

Was just there yesterday, never thought of posting those here.

Definitely had a lot of potential covers, especially that foot one.

 

[Heid]

This one here is so fucking cool man

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Really lol isn't it based on the "don't trust anyone even yourself" meme