Borderlands 3 Publisher Defends "Necessary Actions" Against YouTuber Who Shared Leaks

Leaks are fairly commonplace with today's video games, with many details arriving much earlier than developers and publishers would like. That said, one game that has certainly seen its fair share of leaks is the upcoming Borderlands 3, which officially launches next month. YouTuber SupMatto has been one such person to share these leaks in videos on his channel. That said, a recent video posted by SupMatto informed people that publishers Take-Two Interactive and 2K Games had excessively targeted him because of his videos, and now the publishers are defending their actions.

"Take Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously," a 2K rep told The Verge. "The action we've taken is the result of a 10-month investigation and a history of this creator profiting from breaking our policies, leaking confidential information about our product, and infringing our copyrights." According to SupMatto, despite this finally coming to light now, this all began back in April. When the Twitch ECHOCast extension was announced, the video showed information about the private account that had been testing it.

As pointed out by SupMatto, he is not the one who discovered this, but he did use it to his advantage. Upon looking up the Twitch account that had been streaming Borderlands 3 to test the extension, he came across some thumbnails that he decided to use in his own videos. Seeing as the thumbnails were on Twitch, he believed they fell under public domain, but that only led to multiple copyright strikes by 2K. However, these copyright claims came after two private investigators hired by Take-Two showed up at the YouTuber's house on July 25th, according to SupMatto. "I was very tense, as many of you could imagine, having two people in suits you don't know show up at your home," he said in a video detailing the situation.

When asked by The Verge, 2K declined to comment on them possibly sending private investigators to SupMatto's home. They did, however, state that they will "take the necessary actions to defend against leaks and infringement of our intellectual property that not only potentially impact our business and partners. The information he's sharing about the situation is incomplete, and in some cases untrue. Not only were many of his actions illegal, but they were negatively impacting the experiences of other content creators and our fans in anticipation for the game."

This is why some of you may have noticed #boycottborderlands3 trending on Twitter recently. After this information came to light, other content creators started talking about it, leading to others beginning to become outraged over the situation. This, of course, is only the latest fuel to be thrown on the fire involving Borderlands 3, especially after it being revealed that it would be a timed Epic exclusive.

In fact, following the outrage over the situation, SupMatto noted how many people are "exaggerating" and don't exaclty have all of the facts. This has led to him to decide it would be best to step back from the Internet for a while. "I am absolutely on hiatus from making videos as I figure out what I want to do," he said. "I want to give myself time to be depressed."

What do you think about all of this? Do you believe Take-Two hired the private investigators? Should people be outraged over the situation? Let us know in the comment section below!