Gearbox CEO Gives Reasoning Behind 'Borderlands 3's Epic Games Store Exclusivity

Borderlands fans have been on quite the rollercoaster of emotions as of late. Borderlands 3 was [...]

Borderlands fans have been on quite the rollercoaster of emotions as of late. Borderlands 3 was officially revealed with an amazing trailer and given a release date that isn't too far away, but it was also unveiled that PC players will be getting the game exclusively from the Epic Games Store for the first six months. This, of course, did not please some fans. The exclusivity has unfortunately prompted many to go after Gearbox Software and CEO Randy Pitchford, even though the final decision was not up to them. That said, Pitchford recently got into a discussion with a Twitter user by the name of LilMcFlurry about Steam versus the Epic Games Store, and he brought up some rather valid points.

In the exchanged, Pitchford notes that the Epic Games Store won't look like it does today when Borderlands 3 arrives in September. This is because Epic has extensive plans for the store, as they've outlined in a roadmap that can be seen in full right here. He also points out that a lot of gamers' arguments revolve around Steam having more features than the Epic Games Store.

He then goes on to say how Epic will more than likely be adding even more features than what is on the roadmap, just like there are probably features on Steam that Valve likely never thought would be part of their platform. "The vision for how a store should interact with a customer and a developer and a publisher is all part of the equation," he said.

Pitchford goes on to say how Borderlands 3 doesn't exist right now, but will in September, when the Epic Games Store is likely a very different platform. He notes, however, that if it isn't changed, Epic will probably suffer because of it.

The Gearbox CEO then went on to say, "The forcing function of that will, in turn, make all those features available on a faster time-line than otherwise possible and this is good for all games from both the customer perspective and the developer/publisher perspective."

The Epic Games Store may be the cause of many gamers' ire due to all of the exclusivity being thrown around and allegations of the program being spyware, but it might be best to not overreact until all of the facts are straight.

In any case, Borderlands 3 is set to arrive on September 13th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store, where it will remain exclusive to for six months before being available on Steam. For more about the game, check out our previous coverage.

What do you think about all of this? Are you still going to wait another six months for Borderlands 3 to come to Steam, or are you not interested in playing the waiting game? Sound off in the comment section below, or feel free to hit me up over on Twitter @anarkE7!

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