Borderlands 4 was revealed this week at Gamescom, and the loot shooter will launch on Steam unlike the Epic Games Store (EGS).
Controversy, both Borderlands 3 AND The wonders of little Tina launched on Epic's storefront before finally arriving on Steam. The platform shift was so obvious that Gearbox head Randy Pitchford he spoke during the shift, which was a bit reluctant of him.
Speaking of old comments he made in 2019 regarding EGS potentially ending Steam's monopoly, Pitchford called those old thoughts “overly optimistic. It's a great lesson for me and anyone who wants to learn from my experience.”
Collaborating with EGS is not always a win-win
In the early days of the Epic Games Store, developers who made their games exclusive to the platform didn't always fare well. The news often led to review bombing, regardless of the length of the exclusivity, and in the worst cases led to mixed reviews. Players' experiences.
While Borderlands 3 AND Wonderlands he did well at Epic, Field step admitted that “customers come for the games, not the store.” Gearbox will “continue to support Steam” going forward, which it stressed has been a practice for the studio since Steam's inception.
However, he also thinks that Valve has effectively “given” the PC industry a monopoly, and has done “very little” to earn it. He still hopes that Valve will be challenged by other storefronts, but he also complained that publishers were afraid to support competitors.
He hasn't lost faith in Epic, but believes the developer needs to “prioritize the store and try some new initiatives, including doubling down on key exclusives. If it had successfully leveraged its advantage, perhaps that would have been the case. But Epic hasn't.”
“As a developer,” he concluded, “I will continue to balance being where the customers are with being where I want to earn the trust and loyalty of customers. As a player, I will be on all platforms.”
