Borderlands 3 Fans Boycott Game Over Controversy
2K Games has enraged fans boycotting their game for intimidating YouTuber SupMatto over alleged Borderlands 3 leaks.
Ever since developer Gearbox Software and publisher 2K Games announced return of popular looter shooter franchise Borderlands for this year, Borderlands 3 is already being anticipated as "Game of the Year" by critics and fans alike.
So far, the title has managed to stay in headlines for nothing but wrong reasons and lately, a drastic action from 2K Games have sparked controversy that has angry fans rallying over on social media to boycott the game on release.
RELATED: Borderlands 3 Announced
Up until now, most of negative press surrounding Borderlands 3 had Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford on their headlines but that just changed when publisher decides to go after a YouTuber known as SupMatto over alleged leaks.
Whenever a new game is announced, everyone from game journalist to greater part of interested players wants to know more about it until it is finally released and they heavily craves for juicy information leaks at all times.
RELATED: Shenmue 3 Epic Store Exclusivity Creates Kickstarter Controversy
SupMatto has been a very reliable source of such leaked information on YouTube for some time to his followers, where he discusses Easter Eggs from past games and reveals brand-new leaks that have ties to Borderlands 3.
In one particular stance, Take-Two Interactive, parent company of publisher 2K Games took issue with how he was providing these information and selling them over to his private Discord server for $5 monthly membership in exchange.
RELATED: Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy Hurts EA Stock Price
Aside from selling leaked information, Take-Two accuse him of using some thumbnails on his account that are taken from various developer streams on Twitch that Gearbox has been using time to time to test out their latest features.
So, they hired two private eyes to investigate his sources and they showed up to his doorsteps on July 25 to question him about leaks and other related details regarding gameplay, which obviously goes too far out of the line.
RELATED: Borderlands 3 to Be Epic Games Store Exclusive
Just as they leave, his Discord channel was removed all of a sudden and he received bunch of copyright strikes on his YouTube videos, effectively taken down many of his Borderlands 3 content and almost had his channel terminated.
Take-Two was very keen to know about how he acquired those development stream codes in first place that were actually out in public for months by then and most probably have been worried sick thinking SupMatto was some skilled hacker.
RELATED: Watch Dogs: Legion and HitRecord Collaboration Creates Controversy
It was no crafty work on his part and all he did was watching over an anticipated "Gameplay Reveal" video that was released on April 29. There, name of their testing Twitch account showed up and it was picked by curious fans.
He himself didn't even notice those codes at first and only got to them when many have shared this news over to Reddit and Twitter. So, basically thumbnails that he used were already made public for long before he saw and talked about it.
RELATED: Fallout 76 Nuka Cola Dark Rum Outrage
SupMatto made a response video on allegations made by 2K Games, detailing the whole event that happened.
RELATED: Borderlands 3 and Vampire: Bloodlines 2 Pulled from Epic Mega Sale
Take-Two released a statement saying, they were actually running an investigation on him for past 10 months before making claims and accused him of making profits by breaking their confidential information leak policies.
Not only his actions have broken rules but also infringed their copyright but one can only wonder whether or not they have taken things too far by sending goons over to his house rather than simply contacting him over an issue.
RELATED: Fire Emblem Actor Removed After Controversy
This has majority of fans from Borderlands community voice their utter displeasure against behavior displayed by 2K Games and have kick-started a movement over Twitter that got #BoycottBorderlands3 trending on top.
SupMatto has been making Borderlands related content on his YouTube channel for years and now he is quitting following this incident. This is a billion dollar company like Take-Two Interactive bullying him into submission.
RELATED: Shenmue 3 Backers Won't Get Pre-Order Content
Borderlands 3 seems to be very promising and many were looking forward to it but after a series of mishaps from both developer and publisher studio, angry consumers have rallied up to protest by not supporting the game after all.
Development team at Gearbox Software worked hard on this upcoming release and Take-Two has obviously disappointed many fans by now. Only by properly addressing their fault to players, they may slightly redeem themselves at this point.
Ever since developer Gearbox Software and publisher 2K Games announced return of popular looter shooter franchise Borderlands for this year, Borderlands 3 is already being anticipated as "Game of the Year" by critics and fans alike.
So far, the title has managed to stay in headlines for nothing but wrong reasons and lately, a drastic action from 2K Games have sparked controversy that has angry fans rallying over on social media to boycott the game on release.
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| Borderlands 3 Fans Boycott Game Over Controversy |
RELATED: Borderlands 3 Announced
Up until now, most of negative press surrounding Borderlands 3 had Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford on their headlines but that just changed when publisher decides to go after a YouTuber known as SupMatto over alleged leaks.
Whenever a new game is announced, everyone from game journalist to greater part of interested players wants to know more about it until it is finally released and they heavily craves for juicy information leaks at all times.
RELATED: Shenmue 3 Epic Store Exclusivity Creates Kickstarter Controversy
SupMatto has been a very reliable source of such leaked information on YouTube for some time to his followers, where he discusses Easter Eggs from past games and reveals brand-new leaks that have ties to Borderlands 3.
In one particular stance, Take-Two Interactive, parent company of publisher 2K Games took issue with how he was providing these information and selling them over to his private Discord server for $5 monthly membership in exchange.
RELATED: Star Wars Battlefront II Controversy Hurts EA Stock Price
Aside from selling leaked information, Take-Two accuse him of using some thumbnails on his account that are taken from various developer streams on Twitch that Gearbox has been using time to time to test out their latest features.
So, they hired two private eyes to investigate his sources and they showed up to his doorsteps on July 25 to question him about leaks and other related details regarding gameplay, which obviously goes too far out of the line.
RELATED: Borderlands 3 to Be Epic Games Store Exclusive
Just as they leave, his Discord channel was removed all of a sudden and he received bunch of copyright strikes on his YouTube videos, effectively taken down many of his Borderlands 3 content and almost had his channel terminated.
Take-Two was very keen to know about how he acquired those development stream codes in first place that were actually out in public for months by then and most probably have been worried sick thinking SupMatto was some skilled hacker.
RELATED: Watch Dogs: Legion and HitRecord Collaboration Creates Controversy
It was no crafty work on his part and all he did was watching over an anticipated "Gameplay Reveal" video that was released on April 29. There, name of their testing Twitch account showed up and it was picked by curious fans.
He himself didn't even notice those codes at first and only got to them when many have shared this news over to Reddit and Twitter. So, basically thumbnails that he used were already made public for long before he saw and talked about it.
RELATED: Fallout 76 Nuka Cola Dark Rum Outrage
SupMatto made a response video on allegations made by 2K Games, detailing the whole event that happened.
RELATED: Borderlands 3 and Vampire: Bloodlines 2 Pulled from Epic Mega Sale
Take-Two released a statement saying, they were actually running an investigation on him for past 10 months before making claims and accused him of making profits by breaking their confidential information leak policies.
Not only his actions have broken rules but also infringed their copyright but one can only wonder whether or not they have taken things too far by sending goons over to his house rather than simply contacting him over an issue.
RELATED: Fire Emblem Actor Removed After Controversy
This has majority of fans from Borderlands community voice their utter displeasure against behavior displayed by 2K Games and have kick-started a movement over Twitter that got #BoycottBorderlands3 trending on top.
SupMatto has been making Borderlands related content on his YouTube channel for years and now he is quitting following this incident. This is a billion dollar company like Take-Two Interactive bullying him into submission.
RELATED: Shenmue 3 Backers Won't Get Pre-Order Content
Borderlands 3 seems to be very promising and many were looking forward to it but after a series of mishaps from both developer and publisher studio, angry consumers have rallied up to protest by not supporting the game after all.
Development team at Gearbox Software worked hard on this upcoming release and Take-Two has obviously disappointed many fans by now. Only by properly addressing their fault to players, they may slightly redeem themselves at this point.
