Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford is now talking about Borderlands 4 platform exclusivity, and asking if players would be up for pre-ordering the game to influence where the exclusives go.
The Borderlands 4 road got a bit bumpy there after Pitchford's "real fan" comments, which came following worries that the game would cost $80 (which was all for naught, because it's only $70). After the backlash, you would expect Gearbox to take his phone away for a bit. However, Pitchford is now pitching the idea of exclusive content between PC storefronts, or at the very least he is relaying the word of the "suits."
In a post on Twitter, Pitchford says that the "suits" are thinking about exclusive content between the Epic Game Store and Steam versions of the game, asking: "Would you pre-order Borderlands 4 on you [sic] favorite platform if you knew that would influence exclusivity decisions?" Attached is a poll with yes and no options for both Steam and Epic, with the Steam options dwarfing the Epic ones, and accounting for 91% of the responses.
A lot of the PC gaming community seems to have vitriol for the Epic store – which Gearbox will know all too well as Borderlands 3 was exclusive to the store for a bit. Asking if players would pre-order the game to influence decisions feels somewhat like an indirect way of saying fans should pre-order Borderlands 4 with the vague promise of exclusive content. However, considering that almost everyone in the responses to Pitchford's tweet is telling him how much platform exclusives suck, hopefully Borderlands 4 forgoes this entirely.
Gearbox looks to be overhauling the way weapons work in Borderlands 4 to offer "more opportunity for surprise."
