Borderlands 3 writer Mikey Neumann leaves Gearbox Software

Mikey Neumann, the lead writer on Borderlands 3, leaves Gearbox Software to focus on his health and his YouTube show, Movies with Mikey. Because of health conditions the Chief Creative Champion physically just can’t do the work anymore.

I’ve been living with multiple sclerosis for just over five years. That’s how long it’s really been affecting me. Even before this trip to the hospital, I knew MS was slowly eating me alive, and by proxy, my apparently-scrumptious nervous system. I poured myself more into work and my Youtube show. Anything to keep my mind off how bad it was before I knew what bad even was.

Mikey Neumann

Neumann instead will focus on his youtube show ‘Movies with Mikey’ full-time, as he recently launched a Patreon to support him & the series. In the meantime, it seems that Borderlands 3 is getting a new lead writer. A little while back I heard Randy Varnell, the Creative Director of Battleborn, say that he no longer shares an office with Sam Winkler. Sam was the writer for all the post-launch content for Battleborn. When I mentioned this event in a tweet to Gearbox President Randy Pitchford he responded.

Out of one Randy’s office and into another Randy’s office… kind of 😉

Randy Pitchford

An obvious assumption would be that Sam is stepping in for Mikey. It is unknown how far Mikey got with writing for the game. The overall plot would probably be set, however additional writing for quests and such probably needs to be filled in. If we check a few tweets you can see Mikey and Sam have been hanging out together during the transition time. This could be Mikey filling Sam in on what the tone and direction are on the Borderlands franchise, however, they could just be hanging out.