Borderlands receives thousands of negative reviews on Steam, while the best part of the series is actually free right now.
Which game is it about? The Borderlands series is very popular among shooter fans, and especially Borderlands 2 is considered one of the best loot shooters of all time by genre enthusiasts.
On the review platform Metacritic, the game has a strong score of 89 on PC and is thus rated higher than competitors like The Division 1 (80) and 2 (82) or Destiny 2 (83). Borderlands 2 is especially loved by many players for its humor and characters like Handsome Jack. The variety of playable builds and the large selection of weapons are often praised as well.
Borderlands 2 for free on Steam, but players still complain
Why don’t players want the game even for free? A few weeks ago, criticism of the Borderlands games arose because publisher Take-Two Interactive changed the terms of use.
Players left hundreds of negative reviews on Steam and accused the game and the development studio of spying on players and their data due to a clause in the changed terms of use. Several reviews stated that the Borderlands games would install spyware.
Additionally, players feared that a new clause could harm the modding community of the games and that players could now face penalties for using mods.
What is the latest development? The situation between Gearbox and the players escalated when a Borderlands discount promotion started on Steam on Thursday, June 5, 2025, whereby Borderlands 2 is free. Anyone who secures the game by June 8 can keep it.
Since then, a large number of negative reviews have been added across the entire franchise again. Borderlands 2 was particularly hard hit. In the past 30 days, the second part of the series received over 8,500 negative reviews. The entire franchise reached over 12,000 criticisms in the same period.
In the most recent negative reviews of Borderlands 2 on Steam, players write that they don’t even want the game for free. One user says: ‘Don’t buy or take it for free. Contains spyware and blocks mods.’ Another comments: ‘Nice 100% discount promotion. Still spyware.’
Now the developers have responded to the players’ accusations in a statement.
This is what the developers say: Gearbox has published an official statement on Steam regarding the community’s accusations, addressing the concerns about spyware and mod bans.
Regarding the spyware allegations, the developers say:
Take-Two does not use spyware in its games. Take-Two’s privacy policy applies to all labels, studios, games, and services across all media and platform types, such as console, PC, mobile app, and website. The privacy policy identifies the data activities that may be collected; however, this does not mean that every instance is captured in every game or service.
Take-Two lists these practices in its privacy policy to provide transparency to players and to comply with its legal obligations. Take-Two collects this information to provide its services to players, including the protection of the gaming environment and player experience. You can read more about this in the privacy policy.
For example, player and device identifiers are partially collected to ensure that the game is compatible with each player’s media, platform, or website browser type. It allows us to better understand how players play the games and to personalize the user experience (such as displaying usernames!). Account access information is collected from users who choose to create accounts with Take-Two and its labels.
Moreover, the developers stated that they only take action against mods that provide players with an unfair advantage or negatively affect the gameplay of other players. Single-player mods are generally not subject to penalties:
‘Take-Two’s terms of service prohibit mods that allow users to gain an unfair advantage, negatively impact other users’ ability to enjoy the game as intended, or grant users access to content that the user is not entitled to. We do this to protect the integrity of the gaming experience for all users. Take-Two generally does not take action against mods that are meant solely for single-player mode, are non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property rights (IP) of their labels and third parties.’
Take-Two’s terms of service, which apply to Borderlands, are also expected to apply to GTA 6, as the company is also the publisher of Rockstar Games. Everything you need to know about the highly anticipated action game can be read on MeinMMO: GTA 6: Release, trailer, and map – The most important information about the action game
