For fans of the Borderlands series, Borderlands 3 (or maybe it will be a post sequel?) has been a long time coming. The last Borderlands title, Borderlands: The Pre-sequel, came out three years ago, and that was hardly a complete game. Borderlands 2 came five years ago, and while we’ve heard a lot of noise about Borderlands 3, that’s all we’ve got. We still haven’t got an official announcement, release date, trailer, or even screenshots.

Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox, has made it pretty obvious that Borderlands 3 is happening. In April of 2016, he tweeted out that Scott Kester, the art director for Battleborn, would be moving to their next Borderlands project. Around the same time, Pitchford made a comment at PAX that, “It’s no secret, obviously there’s going to be another Borderlands.” So we all know Gearbox is making it, but damned if they will actually announce anything about it.

There are a lot of reasons Gearbox could be taking their sweet time to reveal trailers, release dates, or anything at all for Borderlands 3. The series is wholly unique, with basically no one else able to replicate the magical soup that is the Borderlands series, but as the series grew, it grew dangerously close to collapsing on the weight of its own success.

Borderlands was a smash hit because it combined the fun of an FPS with the loot progression of a Diablo game. Items were constantly dropping or being found in chests, and it made every bit of the game exciting. While the story in the first one was a little lacking, they did loot right. When Borderlands 2 came out, it was both better and worse than its predecessor. Combat and enemy variety were better and more cinematic. Progression was cleaner and more exciting, and while there was much more of a story in Borderlands 2, it was a little clichéd, predictable, and at times head-scratching. Worst of all, the loot progression was absolutely ruined.

The vast majority of chests in the game dropped only white items, with only the occasional green item thrown into the mix. Bosses, who would explode fantastically into money and items, would routinely drop a single blue item. The only real way to get items was through Golden Keys, a marketing scheme to force players to engage with Gearbox on social media and basically anywhere they wanted for a chance at a code and a key which would then unlock actual good gear. It might have been a good marketing call, but it shit all over progression and player enjoyment. Borderlands: The Pre-sequel wasn’t much better, with similarly awful loot and a story that only compounded on how nonsensical and poorly written the one in Borderlands 2 was.

Part of the reason for Gearbox’s reserved nature on a new Borderlands has been in their push for other titles. Unfortunately, Battleborn was a failed hero shooter that Gearbox had been pushing to be their next big franchise. While the company had high hopes for the game, a combination of boring design (such as buff guy in trucker hat), uninspired combat, and mediocrity killed the game almost at launch. Gearbox has also stepped into the realm of Publishing, which is coming a long way from their humble roots. They are busy producing smaller titles, like the RTS Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak and the somewhat dead but possibly salvageable We Happy Few.

Gearbox has definitely been trying to stretch its wings and do something new. Unfortunately, those new things haven’t worked out the way they wanted. Hopefully they will take lessons from the other Borderlands titles – keep the great combat system, skill trees, and achievements – and learn what they need to fix – don’t give us keys out-of-game to get loot in-game. After so many years in development, fans will either love it automatically, or string it up for failing to be perfect. Either way, a Borderlands 3 release date and trailer would be nice, Gearbox.