In possibly the least surprising news of 2019 so far, Borderlands 3 will release on September 13th this year on PC, PlayStation and Xbox One. There’s no news on a Switch release as of yet, but I don’t think too many people were expecting one. As well as the release date, it has also now been officially confirmed that the game will launch exclusively on the Epic Store for a period of 6 months (until April 2020). You can view the full launch trailer below, which displays the launch date and you’ll also notice the Epic Store logo.
This news isn’t terribly surprising, as Epic has been snapping up a few big titles recently, but never the less it’s beginning to frustrate PC gamers, mainly because the Epic Store in its current state is far inferior to Steam and lacks some basic functionality that should be in any store, such as reviews and a shopping cart. There are, of course, other reasons why people don’t like it, such as having a fractured game library, no achievements, and the lack of a community. Borderlands 3’s publishers, 2K, had this to say on the subject:
“The PC gaming community has been an important part of the success of the Borderlands series, and we are excited to be partnering with Epic who recognise its worldwide popularity and share in our commitment to bring Borderlands 3 to this rapidly expanding audience,”
“Our mission, in addition to delivering the most engaging and captivating entertainment experiences, is to embrace new distribution platforms that will contribute to our effort to grow the audience for Borderlands 3.”
What this essentially means is that they will make more money selling the game exclusively on the Epic Store, so that’s what they’re going to do. Considering that they themselves say that “The PC gaming community has been an important part of the success of the Borderlands series“, it’s surprising to see them ignoring their players.
Regardless of what you think of the Epic Store exclusivity deal, the game looks great and it’s out in a few months, and personally, I don’t mind which store I use to buy it. I’m getting it on release as I don’t have the will power to wait another 6 months – we’ve been waiting long enough for Borderlands 3.
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