Borderlands 3 has been revealed and it’s hit the internet like wildfire. However, not all the news is good news depending on your choice of gaming platform. With the announcement of Borderlands 3 at PAX East 2019 fans of the series were in a buzz, but that mood could quickly be turned around when revealed that it would be exclusive to Epic Games’ Launcher on PC. After the controversy of Metro Exodus’ exclusivity deal with Epic Games, it’s on the fence whether this will end up dealing a blow to the game on PC.
Borderlands is a series which, for some triggers a burst of nostalgia of a time when games were simpler. Initially released in 2009 the Borderlands video game series has had a long run over 3 main titles and a spin-off story-based game named “Tales From the Borderlands” developed by studio Telltale. The 3 main titled games have all received generally good acclaim across the board, all scoring 80s and above on Metacritic, with Borderlands 2 taking 91. It’s been almost 5 years since the release of the previous main Borderlands game and fans have been eager for a new installment. A staple in the gaming community and a shining example of a “looter shooter” done right in this era of games like “Destiny” and “Anthem”.
Borderlands 3 releases on September 13th, 2019 however with the announcement of the game also comes the fact that on PC it will only be available through the Epic Games Launcher up until April 2020. A fact that has many PC gamers in an uproar. What this means is that it won’t be available through PC’s most famous game collection platform “Steam”. This sparked an outrage in a lot of the PC community resulting in players deciding to boycott the game in favor of waiting for its release on Steam, and even going so far as to “review-bomb”(A method in which many consumers leave negative reviews on products in order to invoke a change) previous Borderlands titles on Steam. Many directly including the Epic Games Launcher as a reason for their review. Here’s a snippet of one such review.
Many PC players have voiced their opinions on a variety of issues surrounding being forced to buy the game from epic games launcher as opposed to steam. The highest amount of concerns have been about the launcher’s lack of features. Things that Steam has yet Epic lacks are for example user reviews, achievements, mods, and purchases in different foreign currencies.
However, although exclusivity is seen as a negative concept for PC gamers it helps out developers and creators a bit more. For example, a reason 2k Games(Publisher) would decide to release on Epic’s platform as opposed to Steam’s is that Epic takes a smaller percentage of sales. Epic takes a 12% cut of revenue from a game’s sale while Steam takes 30%. Games exclusive to different platforms might also promote diversity and competition between platforms as opposed to Steam having what could be considered a monopoly on PC gaming. Although as discussed before Epic would have to step up their game in regards to features if they want to win over the PC community.
