Gearbox’s CEA is trying his best not to be misinterpreted. But it seems his best may not be good enough.
Gearbox Co-Founder and Software CEO Randy Pitchford all but confirmed that long-awaited title Borderlands 3 would not be appearing at E3 2018 through a series of recent tweets. He laid out this message very clearly and plainly in a total of five tweets, where he even went so far as to admit that “Borderlands 3″ will not be at E3 and many of you will choose not to believe it. Many of you will find a way to interpret the intent to suit what you want to believe regardless of what is true.”
And from prior reactions to rumors of the news that Borderlands 3 will not be at E3, Pitchford’s statement seems to have been 100% accurate. Even still, despite Pitchford’s outright statement that Borderlands 3 will not be appearing at E3, in addition to a statement about how hard the team is working to bring out new experiences for the future, some fans prove their resilience and continue to believe that their beloved franchise will make an appearance at the upcoming gaming event. In a Youtube video by popular Youtube content creator Hayder Hype, Hype discusses a copyright update by Gearbox to claim the term “Borderworlds” in addition to their claim over the term “Borderlands”. Hype’s logic is as follows: Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford confirmed that “Borderlands 3” will not be appearing at E3, but this may be a misdirection, because this copyright switch may mean that Gearbox has actually renamed their upcoming title to “Borderworlds”, and are planning to show that at E3 instead.
But while Hype’s theory may seem clouded in hope and wishful thinking, crazier things have happened in the gaming industry before. In fact, this exact move isn’t even that new to the industry, as a similar thing happened to the Final Fantasy series back in E3 2013. Prior to the event, developers had long been working on a game titled “Final Fantasy Versus Xiii”, which had been shown off at a number of prior events. In the months leading up to E3 2013, developers of the game said they had no information to share, and led the game’s following into such a long lack of news and updates that many began to believe that the game would never be released. But then, in E3 2013, a trailer showed that the project was not only alive but had been re-branded to Final Fantasy XV.
This clever re-branding had allowed developers to dodge all questions concerning their upcoming game and take audiences completely by surprise. While this could theoretically be the case for Gearbox at E3 2018, the game’s one past event showing shows evidence against this theory.
The game was shown briefly during a tech demo for the Unreal 4 Engine last year. The demo revealed no significant details about the game, but ended with Pitchford himself saying, “Also, if you’re looking forward to a future Borderlands game, we’re working on it”. If they were planning on re-titling the entire series, Pitchford would likely have been much more hesitant to drop the name “Borderlands” during the demo. And while its true that the aforementioned Final Fantasy game did completely re-brand their title after giving it out to fans several times, that happened over the course of several years. The re-branding predicted by Hype would need to occur in under one year.
Pitchford’s comment speaks to more than this isolated incident, however. The entire hype culture surrounding the gaming industry can often lead fans to believe whatever they want to believe and to disregard news received directly from developers. Fans aren’t entirely to blame for this either, as the Final Fantasy event reveals that there are times where developers are willing to pull tricks to generate extra hype by preying off of those who fail to live within the lines.
Will Borderlands 3 be at E3 2018, though? Probably not, but fans are free to come to their own alternate conclusions if they feel like it.
Featured Image Via Flickr/Tom Francis
