Borderlands 4 will launch on Steam and the Epic Games Store on PC–a pretty common occurrence for any big-name game. But, in this case, it’s notable for a couple of reasons. First, Borderlands 3 was a timed exclusive for the Epic Games Store. And secondly, Gearbox co-founder and president Randy Pitchford shared some strong words about Steam five years ago on social media.
In April 2019, Pitchford believed that Steam could be “a dying store” in 5-10 years. This led to a viral post on X calling out Pitchford for his prediction, highlighting that Borderlands 4 will launch on Steam. Pitchford responded directly to this on the social media platform, stating that he could have been right if “if Epic successfully pressed its advantage.”
If Epic successfully pressed its advantage, that may have been the case. But Epic did not. So, famously, Steam does very little to earn the massive cut they take and continues its effective monopoly in the West while would-be competitors with much more developer friendly models…
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) August 22, 2024
The Gearbox head honcho didn’t stop there and explained his rationale for bringing Borderlands 4 to Steam (it’s also arriving on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S). “…Steam does very little to earn the massive cut they take and continues its effective monopoly in the West while would-be competitors with much more developer friendly models continue to shoot themselves in the foot,” Pitchford said. “I am a Steam customer and Steam developer that will continue to root for and support competition.”