When it was announced that Borderlands 3 would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store, gamers reacted in the usual, measured and reasonable way.
Kidding!
Instead, hundreds of angry fans took to Steam to ‘review bomb’ Borderlands, Borderlands 2 and Borderlands The Pre-Sequel. This has seen the user scores for these games drop significantly, despite Steam advising that 4000 Borderlands 2 reviews have been assigned the ‘off-topic review’ tag.
That tag removes those reviews from the overall score and excluded them from the rating calculation.
Borderlands Review Bombing
Online and Social Product Owner on Borderlands 3 Scott Velasquez tweeted;
Not cool at all to misuse the review system like this and shame on @steam_games for allowing it.
Gearbox CEO and President Randy Pitchford replied to Velasquez writing;
Ironically, that this misuse is possible and that Steam has no interest in correcting this misuse makes me kind of happy about 2k’s decision and makes me want to reconsider Gearbox Publishing’s current posture on the platform.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 5, 2019
Twitter user Hecklezz then replied to both Pitchford and Velasquez stating;
This would not have happened if there wasn’t an exclusivity deal. You, 2K, or whoever is responsible brought it upon themselves, and it is their fault for everyone being pissed off
Despite Hecklezz having two followers and only following 11 accounts, Pitchford responded, tweeting;
“I wouldn’t hit you if you didn’t deserve it. It’s your fault I am hitting you.” WTF is wrong with you and this victim blaming bullshit. Kindly fuck off, troll.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 5, 2019
Clearly, Pitchford is aggravated by the situation and for bearing the brunt of gamer outrage, despite stating multiple times that 2K has decided to publish to the Epic Games Store and not Gearbox. In recent days, Pitchford has replied to multiple tweets, stating that 2K made the publishing decision, however, fans aren’t buying it.
Sorry? You can believe what you want, but some people believe the Earth is flat and 9/11 was a US Government job and that JFK was killed by Castro. Conspiracy beliefs not based on fact but based on your personal bias are not the path to truth and reason.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 5, 2019
1) This is a publisher gripe, not a developer gripe. 2) Switch is pretty rad if you really need to spend that money!
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 5, 2019
Regardless of whether you’re upset about where a game is being published, review bombing and trolling or harassing the developer on Twitter isn’t the answer. Since Pitchford tweeted that he was reconsidering Gearbox Publishing’s “posture on the platform,” fans have begun to theorise that the real reason is because of the additional money that can be earned through the Epic Games Store.
Borderlands 3 will be launching for PS4, Xbox One and exclusively on the Epic Games Store for PC on September 13, 2019.
It will be available on other PC storefronts in April 2020.