“Misplaced” hopes: Why Borderlands 4 won’t be another Epic Games Store exclusive

Enlarge / Artist’s conception of Randy Pitchford surveying the Epic Games Store landscape years after Borderlands 3‘s exclusive launch there. (credit: Gearbox)

It’s been five years now since the PC version of Borderlands 3 launched as a high-profile timed exclusive on the Epic Games Store. At the time, Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford memorably mused that Steam “may look like a dying store” in “five or ten years” thanks to increased competition from Epic and others.

Fast-forward to this week’s announcement of Borderlands 4, and despite Pitchford’s old comments, the sequel will not follow its predecessor’s example of EGS exclusivity. The new game plans to launch on Steam and EGS simultaneously sometime in 2025 (alongside PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions).

When one social media user noticed that change this week, Pitchford responded with another lengthy message explaining why his early hopes for the Epic Games Store’s rise to dominance were “misplaced or overly optimistic.”