Fans on Twitter are calling a boycott of Borderlands 3 after its publisher, 2k Games, and its parent company, Take-Two Interactive, took controversial actions towards a YouTuber, SupMatto. The hashtag “Boycottborderlands3” was trending earlier today as fans expressed their anger on the social media platform for the upcoming first-person shooter. It all started with a new Twitch streaming integration for a gameplay reveal.
Fans were already fuming over the actions of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford when Gearbox announced a Twitch feature for Borderlands 3 through ECHO cast. As part of their gameplay reveal, gamers can connect their Twitch and SHiFT accounts to receive free in-game loot.
This all seems like a fine marketing ploy until one of the Borderlands 3 Twitch accounts used for this feature was revealed at the end of a trailer. The intention being that people will take a look at the stream after they see the trailer. The streams were private while the thumbnails were public.
YouTuber SupMatto jumped on the publicity of the Twitch Thumbnails and made videos out of them. SupMatto has been covering Borderlands 3 and thought the thumbnails could provide new content for his videos. Nothing seems to be wrong with this since they were, indeed, public.
Take-Two, though, saw it as a big problem.
The publisher attacked SupMatto with seven copyright strikes and sent private investigators to his house. Now his Discord and Twitter are down, the latter being his own decision. SupMatto explained the whole situation on his YouTube channel.
His channel is still up because only one strike went through. A YouTube channel is terminated if it receives four strikes in a three month period. SupMatto is unsure about his future, but he will take a break from Borderlands.
Fans did not agree with Take-Two’s actions and went to Twitter to express their feelings. This is the tipping point on top of a slurry of negative Borderlands 3 press. Pitchford was accused of physically attacking and mistreating voice actors and posting videos that promote animal cruelty. The CEO was also accused of gaining a secret $12 million bonus and publically attacking GameInformer for their statements regarding Borderlands 3 microtransactions.
Borderlands 3 releases on September 13. Only time will tell if the boycott is successful. Will you be picking up Borderlands 3 in light of these accusations? Let us know in the comments.
