The latest new IP in development by Gearbox Software was officially announced just about a week ago, after having been spotted on the front cover of a magazine. During the Games Convention in Leipzig, 1UP got the chance to have a chat with Gearbox president Randy Pitchford who gave away a startling detail about the 360 version of their “Mad Max Meets Diablo” four player co-op shooter.

Update: Those without a HDD can breathe a sigh of relief, as it’s been confirmed that the statement made by Gearbox president is in fact false. No HDD will be required to play Borderlands. Thanks for the heads-up, Vagrant360.

In a nutshell, Borderlands will require either the 20 GB or 120 GB HDD in order to be played on your beloved consoles. The strict requirement is due to the game’s nature of generating in-game items, such as weapons, on the go. Pitcford added:

If it weren’t for where the 360 and the PS3 have gone, with big hard drives, and lots of memory, and powerful processors, there’s no way you can conceive of this as a console game.

He doesn’t seem too concerned about Microsoft’s regulations against the use of a hard drive either:

“I don’t know if [Microsoft is] gonna complain about that, and I don’t want to be in the middle of a controversy there, but you need space.”

Sega’s Football Manager 2007 requires a hard drive.

In case you don’t know, Borderlands is the third game to make heavy use of the HDD; Final Fantasy XI and Football Manager 2007 were the pioneers. Does this move indicate that there will be more and more HDD required games in the future?

If you haven’t got around to getting a hard drive, now would be a good time to start thinking of picking one up.