I was one of the many people who watched Borderlands 3 gameplay reveal livestream last Wednesday (our editor Bob was there as well), and I was privy to the issue at hand. The scene plays out a few moments into the livestream event: everything was going so well, the people in attendance were hyped, and in the middle of it all, Gearobox CEO Randy Pitchford comes in and says:
We’re gonna do some kickass campaign DLC, and I'm sure were gonna do all kinds of fun customizations like heads and skins, but we’re not doing any of that free-to-play junk, there’s not gonna be any microtransactions, there’s not gonna be any of that nonsense… and if you’ve played a Borderlands game before, we expect you to feel right at home.
This came from a Twitch clip of the Borderlands 3 stream. Now, whatever your opinion of Randy Pitchford is, it’s pretty clear-cut that his statement, just on its own, means that there’s not going to be any microtransactions in the game. He may have failed to put that into a better context, but the intent came across clearly.
Of course, people are going to pick up on this. The first blow came from a Game Informer article, which stated that “despite” Randy Pitchford’s statements that there will be “no microtransactions” in the game, they exist in the form of cosmetics and various customizations. Randy Pitchford took great offense at this article, which started a bizarre series of back-and-forth’s between him and Andy McNamara, a Game Informer editor.
Now, it seems pretty clear that Pitchford thought – in his mind, at least – that his definition of “microtransactions” are different from everyone else’s, and since Gearbox isn’t implementing “free-to-play” junk, that these payable cosmetics should not be considered so. That would be a bit unfair, and in my opinion this whole issue wouldn’t get as much coverage as it has now if only Pitchford backtracked and said something along the lines of a misunderstanding on everyone’s behalf. Instead, he had to get into a messy argument and pick a bone with someone on Twitter for just reporting on what everyone can agree are the facts, straight from what we know about the game so far.
Outlet Eurogamer has since reached out to 2K, Borderlands 3’s publisher, in order to clarify the issue:
"Players will have the option to purchase certain cosmetic items like character, vehicle, and weapon skins, but none of these purchases would be considered pay-to-win or impacting on the gameplay, like weapons or actual gear."
And there you have it. There’s going to be microtransactions in Borderlands 3, despite Randy Pitchford’s initial statement during the gameplay reveal.
Borderlands 3 is set to be released on September 13 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and the Epic Games Store on PC.
