Randy Pitchford asks fans if they'd swallow future Borderlands exclusivity deals, almost 10,000 people say just put your damn games on Steam

Borderlands 4 screenshot — (Image credit: Gearbox Software)

Born on a mountain, raised in a cave, tweetin' and mindfreakin' is all Randy craves. Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has evaded the squad of tier-one operators who have presumably been dispatched to confiscate his phone and is merrily posting up a storm on X, "The Everything App," even after repeatedly making everyone very angry by tweeting a bunch about Borderlands 4's price and the willingness of "real fans" to pay it.

This time, Pitchford is asking (via GamesRadar) for fan input on the Borderlands 4 pre-order process. In a tweet on June 28, Pitchford—claiming he was relaying a discussion happening among Gearbox "suits"—asked fans if they would "pre-order Borderlands 4 on [your] favorite platform if you knew that would influence exclusivity decisions?" Users could answer "Yes, Steam," "Yes, Epic," "No, Steam," or "No, Epic."

Suits thinking about exclusives between EGS and Steam. Would you pre-order Borderlands 4 on you favorite platform if you knew that would influence exclusivity decisions?June 28, 2025

To be clear, Pitchford isn't asking if fans would accept exclusivity for Borderlands 4—that ship's long-since sailed: BL4 is ditching BL3's timed Epic exclusivity and is already available for pre-order on both Steam and the EGS—he's asking if they'd pre-order the game on their platform of choice knowing that it might influence Gearbox bean-counters when it comes to exclusivity deals for future games.

The response was, well, overwhelming. True, historic landslide proportions, though not really for or against exclusivity in general. Instead, 91% of the almost 10,000 respondents to Pitchford's poll identified themselves as Steam users—53.9% said they would pre-order (on Steam) knowing it would influence future exclusivity, 37.7% said they wouldn't.

Self-identified Epic users were practically a rounding error. 5.6% of self-identified Epic users said they wouldn't pre-order knowing it would influence exclusivity, 2.7% said they would. It's a blowout, Randy.

The only takeaway you can, uh, take away here is that people just want their damn games on Steam. Sure, they might accept platform exclusivity, but only so long as that platform is Steam. Even then, I doubt they really care about exclusivity per se, they just want all their games on the service they already use.

Notable is that, even among the vanishing minority of self-identified Epic users, the majority preference is against exclusives. People just do not like being barred from buying their games on the platform they like using best, and for the vast majority of people, that platform is Steam. No wonder Epic deemed so many of its exclusivity agreements bad deals last year.

TOPICS

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.