On Twitter in the USA today, on August 7th, the hashtag BoycottBorderlands3 trended for four hours. Players are angry at the studio Gearbox and the publisher Take-Two behind Borderlands 3 for taking action against a YouTuber. But that seems to be just the tip of the iceberg.
What a trend it was? From our perspective this afternoon, on August 7th, the hashtag #BoycottBorderlands3 trended for several hours on Twitter. It didn’t quite make it to the top of Twitter trends, but stayed around places 4 to 7 for 4 hours.
With the trend, people are calling for not buying Borderlands 3.
YouTuber says Take-Two went hard against him
What triggered the hashtag? A few days ago, on July 29th, we reported that the developers of Gearbox streamed Borderlands 3 on Twitch. They “accidentally” uploaded 4 hours of gameplay there.
This happened during a stream on a developer channel that appears to be intended for testing.
Some had speculated it could have been a PR stunt, but it appears to have been a test stream that Gearbox wanted to keep secret. However, it was discovered.
Similarly, in April 2019, first gameplay of Borderlands was discovered and spread.
The YouTuber SupMatto, who creates a lot of content for Borderlands and maintains about 138,000 subscribers on YouTube, created thumbnails from this stream.
As a result, Take-Two allegedly issued 7 copyright strikes against SupMatto’s channel and even sent two private detectives to his home. The YouTuber made this known.
The detectives wanted to know from him how he discovered the test channel. From SupMatto’s perspective, it was already well known among hardcore fans.
When these actions against the YouTuber became known, anger formed against Borderlands 3. This is no way to treat a fan and content creator. Other YouTubers said: If a company treated me like this, I would never touch another game from them – no matter how much I like them.
This impulse led to the call for a boycott.
Crossfire around Borderlands 3 that has nothing to do with the game
Why did the hashtag trend? The incident involving SupMatto is not the only thing bothering people about Borderlands 3 right now. However, the issues have nothing to do with the game or any design decisions, but with everything surrounding it:
- PC gamers are annoyed that Borderlands 3 is supposed to come to the Epic Store instead of Steam
- Additionally, the CEO of Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, is a controversial figure and has been involved in trouble several times. He is said to have given the voice of Claptrap a wet slap.
- Others responded to the hashtag and said it was nonsense, people would still buy Borderlands 3 even if they called for a boycott
Apparently, all of this contributed to the hashtag gaining traction for a few hours today. Whether the anger really affects the sales numbers of Borderlands 3 remains to be seen.
Update August 8th, 10:48 AM: The reaction from 2k is now out. They explain their viewpoint on why they sent private detectives to the YouTuber and leaker for Borderlands 3.
