Borderlands 3

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Part of a series on Borderlands. [View Related Entries]

About

Borderlands 3 is the fourth main installment in the Borderlands video game series developed by Gearbox Software. The game was officially announced on March 27th, 2019 and was released on September 13th, 2019..

History

On March 12th, 2019, Gearbox Software Twitter account teased an upcoming video game announcement.^[1] On March 27th, Borderlands YouTube channel posted the teaser trailer for the upcoming fourth installment in the main Borderlands series titled Borderlands 3 (shown below, left).^[2] On March 28th, a reveal trailer was posted to the channel, gaining over 2 million views in 24 hours (shown below, right).^[3]

On April 2nd, the cover art for the game was leaked by Twitter user @Wario64.^[6]

On April 3rd, 2019, the official announce trailer for the game was released, with the release date scheduled for September 13th, 2019

On September 13th, 2019, the game was released in Epic Games Store and on consoles. The game was made available on Steam on March 13th, 2020.

Online Reaction

In the days following the release of the teaser trailer and the reveal trailer, memes using still images from both videos were posted online, with many notable examples appearing in /r/gaming subreddit.^[4]

Epic Games Store Exclusive Reveal and Review Bombing

On April 1st, 2019, the official Borderlands Twitter account announced that the game will be released on September 13th, 2019.^[7] The video attached to the tweet indicated that the game would be an Epic Games Store exclusive. The tweet was promptly deleted, with a copy archived by Resetera forum member Lannisters1798.^[8]^[9]

On April 3rd, 2019, the official Borderlands Twitter account confirmed that the game will be launching on consoles and Epic Games Store on September 13th, 2019,^[10] with the Steam release scheduled for April 2020.^[11]

Following the announcement of the Epic Game Store exclusive PC release, previous installments of the franchise were review-bombed by users on Steam.^[12]

Controversies

On May 2nd, 2019, voice actor David Eddings, who voiced the character Claptrap in previous Borderlands games, replied to a tweet asking if he would be in Borderlands 3 and implied that he had not been paid for previous work (shown below).^[13]

The following day, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford posted a tweet stating that Eddings "was paid handsomely during his employment" (shown below).

On May 6th, Eddings posted a series of tweets claiming that Pitchford assaulted him "in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis" at the 2017 Games Developers Conference (shown below).

On May 7th, the video game news site PCGamer^[14] published a statement from Gearbox announcing they "will abstain from commenting" on his allegations:

"Gearbox takes any and all claims of this nature very seriously and we will abstain from commenting on the allegations Dave is making because it is a personnel matter. We appreciate David’s contributions to the Borderlands franchise and have continued to assert we would welcome him back into the mix as the voice of Claptrap and other future opportunities."

Walking Gun

Walking Gun refers to a bipedal machine gun briefly shown in the trailer.

Guns with legs? We got you, boo.

In 24 hours following the release of the trailer, multiple memes using the stills images of the gun were posted on Reddit, primarily in /r/gaming community.^[5]