The Borderlands franchise has some seriously dedicated followers who have been waiting quite some time for Borderlands 3. However, recently a new controversy has sprung up around the game which caused the #BoycottBorderlands3 movement to start trending online, sparked by a conflict between popular YouTuber SupMatto and their conflict with Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of 2K. Today, Take-Two Interactive issued a statement on the controversy, and why they targeted SupMatto in their investigation.
Take-Two's statement comes in response to a video uploaded yesterday by SupMatto in which he explained his recent absence from YouTube and what he believes started the investigation. According to SupMatto, Take-Two issued copyright strikes on several of his videos and sent private investigators to his residence after he used thumbnails from a secret Twitch stream held by a Gearbox employee testing out the Twitch EchoCast extension.
While SupMatto argues that since it was on Twitch, the thumbnails are public property, Take-Two said in their statement to IGN that the Borderlands 3 Twitch streams in question were set to private, and the thumbnails were obtained using security workarounds on Twitch.
Take-Two sent two private investigators to SupMatto's residence to question him regarding the use of leaked information to make content for his channel. This comes at the end of a 10-month investigation into the use of leaked materials for content creation. According to Take-Two, SupMatto has a history of making content using leaked confidential information. One of the more recent examples was a video, since taken down, going over leaked FL4K the Beastmaster details.
Several Borderlands 3 videos have since disappeared from SupMatto's YouTube channel following the investigation. At this time it does not seem like 2K or Take-Two Interactive are pursuing legal action against SupMatto.
This is not the first controversy surrounding Borderlands 3. There have been several issues surrounding the previous voice of Claptrap and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. David Eddings, who will not be coming back to voice Claptrap in Borderlands 3, accused Pitchford of failing to pay him, as well as accusing Pitchford of physical assault. While these issues have fallen out of the limelight, it's still surprising to see a game littered with so many controversies. Fans will have to wait and see if either of these controversies will impact sales when Borderlands 3 launches next month.
Borderlands 3 launches September 13 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: IGN