Why Borderlands 3’s exclusivity to Epic Games Store kinda sucks

Borderlands 3 is easily one of the more anticipated games of 2019, but excitement has dropped after the concurrent news that it would be exclusive to the new Epic Games Store…you know, the folks behind Fortnite.

Needless to say, this made a lot of people really mad, particularly hardcore fans of the Borderlands series.

And this follows on the heels of the Metro Exodus exclusivity debacle that the Epic Games Store faced earlier this year.

Aside from the need to sign up for yet another online service, the Epic Games Store exclusivity is seen by longtime PC gamers as yet another underhanded move by the publisher to undercut Steam.

Those who have gamed on PCs for a while remember that Steam was pretty much the only thing around for years. Heck, some people even think that Steam saved PC gaming from being overrun by the console market.

So, when the Epic Games Store comes out swinging with higher percentages for publishers and locked-in exclusives, this wasn’t going to sit well with this established crowd.

It hasn’t gotten better, either. The Epic Games Store has even challenged Steam to give developers a larger cut of the money, calling them out despite the relatively large public outcry against Epic Games in general.

Some have even rubbed it in Valve’s face, with Nuclear Throne developer Rami Ismail saying about the Steam owner, “It sucks to be you.” But does it really?

None of this is garnering kudos with gamers and, at the end of the day, publishers have to make money – period.

It might be a little early to see where the chips fall, but gamer sentiment against the Epic Games Store is huge.

It might even be impacting Fortnite.

Let’s be real: The Epic Games Store launched on the back of Fortnite and most people that use it probably do so because of Fortnite.

If Epic can’t capitalise on the success of Fortnite really quickly, the Epic Games Store will become irrelevant.

Since more and more people are starting to see it as a trojan horse of sorts, in addition to all of the bad press Fortnite gets in both mainstream and gamer news outlets, you would have think it is only a matter of time before Epic Games realises that goodwill is not on their side.

The whole thing is really interesting, too, because Epic Games has taken a really combative approach to push their message (and the benefits to devs and publishers). This is strange because, normally, companies tuck tail and run, issuing apologies or made-up statements that feign apology along the way.

Epic isn’t doing that – hitting back hard on a range of recent issues – and it will be interesting to see where this shakes out in the end.

We do know one thing, though, if every exclusive promised to the Epic Games Store becomes a source of controversy, we don’t see that practice surviving into the future.

Featured image: “Borderlands-3-020519-007” (Public Domain) by instacodez