Randy Pitchford Tweetstorms Game Informer Over 'Borderlands 3' Microstransactions
Borderlands 3 , the highly anticipated looter shooter, finally had its public gameplay reveal this week. Shooting hordes of A.I. mobs with silly guns should have been the main topic of conversation, but a very salty CEO stole the show. Randy Pitchford, the eccentric magician and complicated figure helming Gearbox Studios, went on a bit of a Twitter rant. A Game Informer tweet mentioned that Pitchford had said during the live stream that Borderlands 3 won't have microtransactions, but an interview with Gearbox developer Paul Sage claimed otherwise.
"We're selling cosmetic items, but we're not going to nickel and dime players," Sage said in an interview with Game Informer . "DLC will come down the line, but the game won't have anything excessive."
Game Informer chose to make a click bait tweet that muddied and confused the situation. I hope I have clarified it for you. @GI_AndyMc pledge to correct issues with their reporting, but I have seen no evidence of that yet.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 2, 2019
Pitchford felt that the tweet was "clickbait" and that it "muddled and confused the situation." For hours afterwards, Pitchford responded to fans who believed the CEO misspoke and should apologize. Pitchford even went after Game Informer's Editor-In-Chief Andy McNamara. "You can't say no micro transactions when there's micro transactions and then be angry we made a tweet focusing on that angle," McNamara tweeted.
When McNamara tweeted at Pitchford to tell him "what was wrong" with the article, the Gearbox prez posted an 18-tweet thread that doubled down on his position. Pitchford is convinced that loot boxes and "pay-to-win" mechanics are what microtransactions are and not the cosmetic items that will be in Borderlands 3 .
Thank you. 1/ With Borderlands 3 I have made a commitment to consistency with how things were done in Borderlands 2. I am proud of our record of good will and best-in-class customer value with the main games and with DLC we added as our fans demanded more content. https://t.co/X4sJEniPDS
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) May 2, 2019
"I agree that the few words I chose on stage left room for them to be construed towards confusion," Pitchford tweeted. "In a moment where I had expected the team and I would be supported and applauded for holding-the-line with our stance on AAA monetization, I was hurt to suffer both claims of dishonesty and a suggestion that we had fallen on this point from Game Informer."
Borderlands 3 will release on September 13 on PC and console. Newsweek has reached out to Gearbox for additional comment.
