Borderlands 3 is 2K Games fastest-selling PC launch ever despite Epic Store exclusivity
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The Borderlands 3 sales guff has plopped into my inbox and, surprise surprise, Borderlands 3 has got off to a fantastic start. 2K Games has confirmed that Borderlands 2 is the fastest-selling game in 2K’s entire history, as well as the highest-selling title for PC within its five-day launch window.
It’s doing tremendously well, basically, and that deal which brought Borderlands 3 exclusively to the Epic Games Store (for now) doesn’t appear to have dented the looter shooter’s success one bit. “Initial sales of Borderlands 3 have exceeded the label’s expectations and, in particular, PC sales of the title through the Epic Games Store have been incredibly strong,” wrote 2K Games, chowing down that corporate patter.
Over 5 million units of Borderlands 3 have been sold-in within the five days after launch, with 50% more people buying Borderlands 3 at launch versus Borderlands 2.
“Borderlands 3’s incredibly successful launch is a result of the hard work and longstanding partnership between Gearbox Software and 2K,” said David Ismailer, president of 2K. “We are immensely grateful to everyone who played a role in making the Borderlands series the global, pop culture phenomenon that it is today, including hundreds of developers at Gearbox and many who have made this their life’s work. We also want to thank the Borderlands community. Mayhem does not happen by itself, and their passion for the series is what drives us to make each game an amazing experience.”
As the biggest launch in 2K’s history, Borderlands 3 has sold faster than any NBA 2K, Civilization, XCOM, or Bioshock title. It’s impressive stuff, particularly for a game which does next to nothing new. The thirst for loot is very, very real. Contextualising the PC launch, Borderlands 3 does indeed appear to be a turning point for the Epic Games Store. For all the anger and boycotts, the bottom line is that a large chunk of the audience really doesn’t care all that much what client it’s on. No doubt more copies of Borderlands 3 would’ve been sold if it did launch on Steam but we expect the fattest of paychecks from Epic helped sweeten the deal.
It’s already proving controversial news among PC gaming communities. The Epic Games Store hasn’t exactly won people over with its tactic of paying for timed exclusives, while the messed up cloud saves which deleted potentially hours of progress probably didn’t do much to please Epic’s actual customers. Still, the outpouring of salt has been fairly magnificent to witness.
Hint: If your boycott involves buying Borderlands 3 once it comes to Steam, you’re just telling publishers you’ll absolutely forgive their transgressions and buy it a year later anyway.
And slightly tangential, but this prize plum below has also bought all the Batman: Arkham games on Steam as a protest against the Epic Games Store giving away six Batman games for free. The logic here is a little bit baffling seeing as the Arkham games are developed in Unreal Engine and so, naturally, 10% of all revenue goes directly to Epic Games. Rather than grab a freebie, they’ve protested by paying Epic money. The mind does boggle sometimes.
Anyway, all this controversy continues to rumble on. There are arguments to be made on both sides of the fence but, if anything, it seems as if it’s served to get people talking about Borderlands 3 and the Epic Store when perhaps they wouldn’t of before.
Has anyone here braved the Epic Games Store to play Borderlands 3? How long do you think these exclusivity deals are going to last now they’re actually working? Let us know below!
