Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel isn't coming to PS4 or Xbox One — but you can finally play ClapTrap

Time for a quick lesson: A sequel picks up events after the first story, a prequel takes place before the original, and a presequel does a bit of both. Got it? Good.

Today, developer Gearbox Software revealed Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. It’s a new game in the adventure shooter franchise that will debut on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC later this year. As the name implies, The Pre-Sequel takes place after the events of the original Borderlands but before Borderlands 2. Gearbox isn’t handling development. Instead, 2K Australia — one of the teams that provided support on the three previous BioShock games — is producing this.

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This new entry will feature the same online multiplayer action that has gamers teaming up into groups of up to four to take on quests, collect loot, and move through a story. This time, players will join up with the villain from Borderlands 2 on an adventure set on a low-gravity, low-oxygen moon.

“Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is an all-new standalone experience,” Gearbox president Randy Pitchford said. “When we finished Borderlands 2 and delved into making the downloadable content for it, we really had so much more that we wanted to bring to the Borderlands universe. That’s why it was so exciting to discover that the team down in 2K Australia was available.”

The Pre-Sequel will introduce four new character classes. Players can run around the world shooting as Nisha The Lawbringer, Athena The Gladiator, Wilhelm The Enforcer, and Claptrap The Fragtrap. This is the first time that Claptrap, a fan-favorite character, is playable in the Borderlands games.

The fact that publisher 2K Games isn’t planning (at least yet) to release Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One suggests that Gearbox is potentially working on something else for the new consoles. We’ve reached out to the company, and we’ll update this post with any new information.

Releasing a new game in the Borderlands franchise later this year should fill in a gap in 2K’s publishing schedule. The company released the original Borderlands in 2009, the sequel debuted in 2012, and now The Pre-Sequel will hit in 2014.