Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has been very active on Twitter in the past 24 hours. Pitchford began by further addressing the “review-bombing” of Borderlands 2 on Steam before turning his attention to store curation. The Gearbox boss criticized Steam for supposedly letting any games on its platforms, while also placing too heavy a focus on user reviews.
The Gearbox CEO started by advocating for more heavy-handed curation of video game storefronts:
Who is arguing? I’m telling you my preference. User reviews exist on sites like Amazon where literally any piece of shit product could be listed. Similarly, Steam will allow nearly any garbage software onto their store. Same for mobile app stores. I want a curated store.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 9, 2019
After taking aim at Steam, Pitchford elaborated further on his thoughts:
With curation, the store is representing that *everything* in the store is worthy. If they let something into their store that is sub par, the store takes a hit. User review driven stores shift responsibility and in the process create mechanisms that can be gamed and abused.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 9, 2019
Pitchford concluded the thread by attempting to point out some real-life parallels to the situation:
Imagine going to the grocery store and having to rely upon user reviews to figure out if the milk or bread sucks or not? If I ran a store, I would curate *everything* and I would develop a relationship with my customer such that they trusted if it was in the store, it was worthy.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) April 9, 2019
The hour-long exchange with users on Twitter ended when Pitchford responded to someone indicating the CEO is unsympathetic to fan concerns. “Why are you following me? Here… let me help you with that. Problem solved.”
Pitchford’s most recent tweets followed previous comments about the Borderlands 2 review-bombing on Steam. Pitchford stated, “That Steam has no interest in correcting this misuse makes me kind of happy about 2k’s decision [Epic Game Store exclusivity] and makes me want to reconsider Gearbox Publishing’s current posture on the platform.”
Since Pitchford’s criticism, Steam has stepped in to attempt to address the issue. Steam chose to mark the review-bombing of last week as “off topic review activity.” The Gearbox CEO’s new stance on Valve’s storefront is in stark contrast to comments made just days earlier. Randy Pitchford stated he would “use all the leverage and influence I can to get our game on Valve’s store as soon as reasonably possible” if Gabe Newell announces Half Life 3. Pitchford then directed enquiries about exclusivity to Borderlands 3 publisher 2K.
Valve announced its latest set of measures to tackle review-bombing earlier this month. The changes the company announced are exactly what was implemented in the case of Borderlands 2. The term “off-topic review” was defined by Valve as a review which it deems to be focused on a topic “unrelated to the likelihood that future purchases will be happy if they buy the game.”
Borderlands 3 is slated for release on September 13 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
