Borderlands 3 has been on the Epic Games Store as an exclusive for roughly half a year, and Gearbox Software has graciously decided to bring the title to Steam on March 13th; precisely six months after an exclusive deal with Epic Games Store. This isn’t the first time that Steam is actually dealing with Borderlands 3, however, and many Borderlands owners had an abrupt face-to-face with the Epic exclusive while never opting into the experience.
When Borderlands 3 first came out (and still, to a point, to this day) there was a wide variety of game-breaking bugs and issues that stymied progress for a hefty majority. Some opted to go onto Reddit to bemoan the situation while seeking help at bypassing them, and others went to the gaming discussion platform that they’ve used for years; Steam.
With Epic Games Software not having their own dedicated forum, news of Borderlands 3 arguably being the worst Borderlands experience thus far spread across every platform impressively quick, as Borderlands fans on Steam couldn’t get a word in edgewise with the forums being suffocated by a massive number of EGS users desperate for help.
Mayhem is coming to Steam! #Borderlands3 releases on Steam March 13! Add it to your wishlist right now to be notified as soon as it’s available!
➜ https://t.co/evgpF4TMMm pic.twitter.com/TX3yPwez0b
— Borderlands (@Borderlands) February 27, 2020
The situation was resolved within a week, as the forum moderators for Steam began manually removing every user that was searching for help getting Borderlands 3 to work on the discussion table of Borderlands 2 and 2.5. The damage was done, however, and it was to the detriment of Gearbox Software.
With conversations taking place across the internet in a desperate attempt to get the application working as expected, it effectively canvassed many of the more digitally inclined consumers, informing them that Borderlands 3 was unexpectedly broken on launch.
Beyond the bugs, which included massive frame drops if you’re using a scoped weapon, to random crashes to the desktop, the progression and characters were also reported to be uninspired and a bit drab, with abilities being far less interesting and helpful then they’ve ever been before.
Add on top of that some bizarre dialogue that turns what was once an over-the-top looter shooter with hysterical antics into a strange conversation that may be overheard at a leftist convention (that echoes the overall sentiment of Pre-Sequel shoehorning in multiple talking points that simply didn’t fit the experience), and perhaps Gearbox Software could begin to understand why many Steam users are seemingly indifferent to the news that they thought would be massive for Steam users.
Gearbox Software has announced this on Steam to great fanfare, and the reactive sentiment is underwhelming, at best. With the inclusion of Denuvo (that has already been bypassed by pirates), reportedly boring progression of fetch quests, and horrible dialogue that will leave you scratching your head as to, precisely, why they’re incessantly talking about the natural power of women in an environment that sees hundreds of skulls impaled on spikes, and perhaps Gearbox Software can figure it out on their own.
