Borderlands 3 Has No Exclusive Marketing Deal With Xbox, Says Gearbox Boss

While Borderlands 3 hasn't been officially announced, we do know it exists. And given how big Borderlands and Borderlands 2 were, it's safe to assume whenever it hits, Borderlands 3 will be one of the biggest releases of the year.

Being a large, blockbuster release means a ton of marketing, and the opportunity for either Sony or Microsoft (or Nintendo, I suppose) to lock-down a marketing deal with developer Gearbox Software. And as you may remember, rumors earlier this month of the latter having said marketing deal in place, surfaced. But this isn't the case says Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

The confirmation comes as a result of Twitter user who posted a Tweet that made mention of the rumored deal in question, to which Pitchford unequivocally shut down, claiming that said rumors and reports have "zero basis in reality," and that "Gearbox signed no such thing."

Where are you getting that? Gearbox signed no such thing with Microsoft. How are these things becoming propagated as fact when there is zero basis in reality?

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 18, 2018

Elsewhere on Twitter, Pitchford further squashed the rumor, while raising the question of the reputation of sites that reported the story, and something that is "factually incorrect."

Clearly reported by zero reputable sources... I think to be reputable, one must care about and pursue truth. Reposting news from others without checking the source is one of the failures of digital “journalism”

— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 18, 2018

If the marketing was real, it would have been a massive get for Microsoft and Xbox. Such deals usually include TV promotional material of the game being shown with your system, E3 and other trade show stage rights, and much more. That said, while Borderlands 3 might not have any marketing deals with Microsoft or any others at the moment, this could change in the future.

Beyond confirmation that it exists, details on Borderlands 3 are very scarce. At the moment there is no word of platforms, a release window, or on the nature of the game, all of which likely won't change until it is officially revealed. When said reveal could come, is hard to say, but E3 seems a likely venue. However, evidence recently emerged that suggests a reveal will actually come right before the superbowl of video games, on June 10th.