Borderlands is one of the most visually defined franchises we've seen in the modern gaming era. It just takes one look at the characters and world to know you're in for a lot of looting and shooting. However, at one point Borderlands' art style was far too similar to other games of the time, and it forced Take-Two to endure a major financial hit.
"We screwed up and the art style is not appropriate and it's not differentiated, so we want to remake the game," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick explained in an interview with David Senra (via GamesRadar+). When Borderlands was first shown off, it had a look that seemed inspired by other hits of the time, like Gears of War and Fallout. That wouldn't have made the game stand out, according to Zelnick.
<social>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZgUcrR0K7I</social>
The decision to redo the art style cost Take-Two $50 million, but Zelnick saw it as a necessary investment. "Had we not done that, Borderlands wouldn't have been a hit. And that was a nonobvious decision. And I pretty much can assure you no one else in the business would have done it," he explained.
Essentially, then, Borderlands was given a remake before it was even put out. Even back in the late 2000s, this was something that was inconceivable because of the money you'd have put in on the game already. However, Zelnick's gamble paid off, and Borderlands is still around to this day.