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[RedVIper]

I never said that. I fact, re read what I said. I just said "review" never positive or negative.
"lock reviews when there is too much uncalled for traffic" this could be positive or negative.



In this case it might. The game got a huge 4K patch, so people might be inclined to buy it or not depending on reviews.

As a matter of fact, all 3 borderlands games are as of today in the top 100 games in player count.

I doubt anyone is going to lock reviews when they're positive.

Player count and sales are really not the same thing.

 

[Hendrick's]

How can this can be taken seriously as a CEO of a major gaming company? Excuse the quality, I couldn't find the original tweets.

 

[DonF]

I doubt anyone is going to lock reviews when they're positive.

Player count and sales are really not the same thing.

...people have to buy the game to play it.

I know its not a 1:1 correlation to new sales, if thats what you mean. But it doesn't hurt either.

 

[RedVIper]

...people have to buy the game to play it.

I know its not a 1:1 correlation to new sales, if thats what you mean. But it doesn't hurt either.

The game is old, it's mostly previous player coming back to try it out.

 

[DonF]

The game is old, it's mostly previous player coming back to try it out.

you can't tell for certain, much like I can't say its new sales.

 

[Trojita]

Anyone questioning that people read steam reviews probably doesn't play PC games at all lol. They are a great way to find out if a game has technical issues, bullshit added pre-patch, and missing options.

 

[iconmaster]

Something that wasn't clear to me: Borderlands 3 is not being review-bombed on Steam. It's not on Steam (and won't be for a while), so you can't review it there.

What's being review-bombed is Borderlands 2, presumably by those who own Borderlands 2 on Steam, because they'd be unable to review it otherwise.

I'm not sure how I feel about Valve throwing out those reviews. From the perspective of someone really considering a Borderlands 2 purchase, all this recent kerfuffle is unhelpful noise; so I suppose I lean toward siding with Valve here.

Pitchford is a clown, though. CEOs really should not have Twitter accounts in general.

 

[sol_bad]

honestly, at this point i would refuse to buy the game on Steam.

buying it on Steam even after the exclusivity doesn't do anything. it only shows them it's fine that they can get away with pulling this exclusivity bullshit and still make more money on top of it.

if you really want to make a statement then don't buy the game at all. every single Epic Games exclusive title that i was interested in i am no longer buying it even if it's available elsewhere at another point. so yeah Fuck Metro, Fuck Outer Worlds, Fuck Borderlands.

I don't think this is entirely necessary. If people can hold out until the Steam release, Gearbox will see a sales spike on Steam. That goes for any game that is bullshit exclusive on Epic's store. If the sales on Steam far out weight the sales on Epic, the publisher will have no reason to go Epic exclusive again. It all depends on the moneyhatting money that Epic give out. If it is literally millions upon millions of dollars, how long can they keep that up?

What I disagree with is people deciding to buy the game on console. PC gamers, you know if you buy it on console at launch you are still going to buy it a year down the line on Steam. If you buy it twice, it means Gearbox wins because they got 2 sales out of your arse. Just take a chill pill and concentrate on your backlog during the release of BL3. Don't worry about FOMO, you aren't missing out on anything, you'll still experience it on PC when it releases on Steam.

 

[Graciaus]

I don't think this is entirely necessary. If people can hold out until the Steam release, Gearbox will see a sales spike on Steam. That goes for any game that is bullshit exclusive on Epic's store. If the sales on Steam far out weight the sales on Epic, the publisher will have no reason to go Epic exclusive again. It all depends on the moneyhatting money that Epic give out. If it is literally millions upon millions of dollars, how long can they keep that up?

What I disagree with is people deciding to buy the game on console. PC gamers, you know if you buy it on console at launch you are still going to buy it a year down the line on Steam. If you buy it twice, it means Gearbox wins because they got 2 sales out of your arse. Just take a chill pill and concentrate on your backlog during the release of BL3. Don't worry about FOMO, you aren't missing out on anything, you'll still experience it on PC when it releases on Steam.

If the sales on steam are good thats even better for them. Means epic paid them then fans didnt care enough about that and still bought it. There's no reason not to keep doing it then.

 

[ethomaz]

I strong agree with him about curation and it is one of the main criticism I had for years with Steam... any shit get there and nobody works internally to block it lol

A Store should have a standard of quality to what they sell to their consumers.

About the users reviewers I don't care at all because they are in most cases useless and misinformative.

 

[ethomaz]

Perfection

That is the minimum I expect from a store.

 

[MMaRsu]

I strong agree with him about curation and it is one of the main criticism I had for years with Steam... any shit get there and nobody works internally to block it lol

A Store should have a standard of quality to what they sell to their consumers.

About the users reviewers I don't care at all because they are in most cases useless and misinformative.

Lol and in what exact way does that harm you?

You don't even see the shovelware that gets put on it, so what?

Idgaf some shit games, not as if I was ever going to play them.

 

[Jigsaah]

Pretty sure Steam either has or will be implementing a remedy to the review bomb situation. From what I understand, it sounds like a customer can review a product either with or without the "anomaly" and review bombing no longer affects the overall rating of the game (postive, overly positive, etc.). From what I understand it threads the needles of protecting the integrity of the game's merit and maintaining reviewers freedom of speech (and apparently protest) all while keeping the consumer fully informed.

Does Randy not know this?

 

[Pagusas]

It’s weird how everyone everywhere seems to dislike Randy so much, I agree with him on this and always find him awesome when seeing him in public or in interviews. Maybe I’m just bias living so close to the Gearbox office and staff.

 

[ethomaz]

It’s weird how everyone everywhere seems to dislike Randy so much, I agree with him on this and always find him awesome when seeing him in public or in interviews. Maybe I’m just bias living so close to the Gearbox office and staff.

Actually he is right about these matters but some will raise the SJW shield no matter what.

 

[JareBear: Remastered]

Yeah this strategy has never backfired before.

*awkward cough*

Man I just want a good BL game. Hope it delivers. This trend of bad PR/foot in mouth from big game devs is interesting though. You would think BF5 taught a lesson, not that these are the same situations, but as far as challenging the customer base

 

[JunkerWoland]

Even beyond Borderlands 3, people are not happy with this growing launcher-exclusivity situation and are voicing their displeasure through the various means and venues at their disposal. Stamping down dissent will only make people angrier. As for consumes, I just hope these people will follow through and opt not to support the products and services they’re criticizing.

As for curation, I expect to find handpicked items at a boutique, not the super market and big-box retail. We’ll ultimately see exactly what type of platform the Epic Store turns into, but in an age where buying physical PC games is an anomaly, I’m more interested in a big-box model for major online PC stores & launchers, where the service generally isn’t making decisions on what I can and can’t purchase.

For Epic and all the developers & publishers crowing about how the Epic Store is a step in the right direction, they should be incentivizing people to adopt the platform by giving price breaks on their games, instead of essentially blackmailing consumers with exclusivity deals.

 

[Shifty]

How can this can be taken seriously as a CEO of a major gaming company? Excuse the quality, I couldn't find the original tweets.

 

[daveonezero]

Its clear he prefers a closed curated store. Not an open digital market place where anyone can peddle their goods like Steam. He is the kid that takes the ball from the game so no one else can play with it unless he approves.

I think one is way more preferable for developers of all sizes and the consumer. I lean on the side of options, choice and flexibility.

 

[The Skull]

This guy has some serious mental health issues. He needs to lay of Twitter. Delusional in every sense of the word.

 

[Ozymandias013]

How's this guy not in jail,he stole money from the company

 

[The Cartographer]

I also would like to know how and why Take Two is still letting this guy be president and CEO of Gearbox.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

That'll show 'em.

 

[MMaRsu]

I I lean on the side of options, choice and flexibility.

So Steam?

 

[daveonezero]

So Steam?

clearly.

 

[MMaRsu]

Sanity prevails

 

[Hendrick's]

How's this guy not in jail,he stole money from the company

It's his company.

 

[MMaRsu]

It's his company.

Somehow I still think that's illegal

 

[Jigsaah]

Maybe I'm a contrarian but I just can't seem to get pissed off about any of this. Sorry guys...I guess I'm just not that judgemental of a person's business dealings when the end effect for me is close to nil.

 

[sol_bad]

I strong agree with him about curation and it is one of the main criticism I had for years with Steam... any shit get there and nobody works internally to block it lol

A Store should have a standard of quality to what they sell to their consumers.

About the users reviewers I don't care at all because they are in most cases useless and misinformative.

Ánd what should that standard of quality be exactly? Dangerous Driving just released and it's extremely average from what I gather. Is extremely average a good quality point to start with?

 

[LordRaptor]

I strong agree with him about curation and it is one of the main criticism I had for years with Steam... any shit get there and nobody works internally to block it lol

A Store should have a standard of quality to what they sell to their consumers.

Please provide us with an example of a curated digital storefront that has no bad games available to purchase on it.
Given the sole reasoning behind demands for curation is to 'block' 'bad' games, if no storefronbts meet that criteria, then what exactly is the purpose of 'curation' in the first place?

Just a single example.
One storefront that has no bad games on it,

I can wait. Just one.
Justify curation.

 

[wzy]

When Randy Pitchford threatens to stop publishing games, you take him seriously. Opportunities like this are too rare.

 

[Barakov]

Pitchford, what are you doing?

These rants these past couple of days have insane. I'm starting to think a great deal of developers are out of touch with their audience. Even people that are fine with EGS not having user reviews would tell you that it's better to have them than not.
You can tell when Pitchford is lieing as well, his mouth starts moving.

When Randy Pitchford threatens to stop publishing games, you take him seriously. Opportunities like this are too rare.

Honestly, he should give up doing magic given he's much better at being a clown. Then again he made millions of dollars almost disappear so he might have talent for it.

 

[renzolama]

Is it possible that he's just coked out of his mind most of the time? He looked sweaty and unhealthy as fuck at that press conference recently.

 

[ethomaz]

Please provide us with an example of a curated digital storefront that has no bad games available to purchase on it.
Given the sole reasoning behind demands for curation is to 'block' 'bad' games, if no storefronbts meet that criteria, then what exactly is the purpose of 'curation' in the first place?

Just a single example.
One storefront that has no bad games on it,

I can wait. Just one.
Justify curation.

There was a thread about a rape game last week in GAF... it is not hard to find examples of games that should not be in the store.

BTW there are dozen of games in Steam that won’t ever pass the quality seal to enter PSN or Xbox Store.

Because you know Sony and Microsoft curate their stores.

Apple do the same with App Store that is miles better than Google Play Store.

 

[synchronicity]

I use Steam reviews all the time. I find them very useful:

• If a game has positive Overall and Recent reviews, it is probably worth my time if it interests me.
• If a game has negative Overall and Recent reviews, it is probably not worth my time even if I think it might interest me at first glance.
• If a game has Overall negative reviews but Recent positive ones, it probably means the developer has gone out of their way to turn a previously disappointing game around (No Man's Sky for example.) Perhaps I might buy it now, after all?
• If a game has Overall positive reviews but Recent negative ones, it probably means that recent developments to the game are a let down or the developer has done something stupid (like, I don't know, signing an exclusivity deal with an unpopular rival distributor and then doubled down by criticising his own customers. Maybe.) I'll probably steer clear of this one. Caveat emptor!

Nothing broken about that.

Yes, I love user reviews. Are there garbage reviews? Sure. But I just ignore those. By having so many voice/opinions available on any given title, it's always easy to develop a pretty reliable picture of the game in question by assimilating all the various reviews you read and cross-referencing that information with your own preferences.

Nothing wrong with having user reviews at all. In fact, I would be bothered if they didn't exist.

 

[Mista]

You’re ditching the main platform for a new one. What did you expect Randy? And yeah lots of people doesn’t buy games unless they see reviews about them. STOP COMPLAINING OVER OBVIOUS THINGS

 

[LordRaptor]

There was a thread about a rape game last week in GAF... it is not hard to find examples of games that should not be in the store.

BTW there are dozen of games in Steam that won’t ever pass the quality seal to enter PSN or Xbox Store.

Because you know Sony and Microsoft curate their stores.

Apple do the same with App Store that is miles better than Google Play Store.

So..... you don;t want to give an example then?
The Pros of curation are that bad games do not appear on the storefront.
The Cons of curation are that some good games do not appear on the storefront.

If a curated storefront has bad games available for it, then all that is left is the con. It has inherently failed at it's single task of gatekeeping a level of quality.

 

[VincentMatts]

Not having reviews for content that you can buy and possibly not enjoy would be ridiculous. Yes, grocery stores don’t need them, but you’d have to be stupid to think that they would be worse off with them. Plus in the grocery store, if I buy a can of Coke and I don’t like it, it doesn’t cost me 90 fucking dollars. Giving people the possibility to tell you their opinion on something that isn’t cheap is good.

That being said, I’m glad Epic are giving Steam a run for their money. Steam had too much control on the pc market and no one should have that much control.

 

[ethomaz]

So..... you don;t want to give an example then?
The Pros of curation are that bad games do not appear on the storefront.
The Cons of curation are that some good games do not appear on the storefront.

If a curated storefront has bad games available for it, then all that is left is the con. It has inherently failed at it's single task of gatekeeping a level of quality.

I did give example you just can’t accept them...

 

[dust bunny]

BTW there are dozen of games in Steam that won’t ever pass the quality seal to enter PSN or Xbox Store.

Because you know Sony and Microsoft curate their stores.

I will absolutely agree that it's harder to find trash on those stores than steam, but curation or quality of the game has little to do with it. Notice how Skylight Freerange 2: Gachduine, Life of black tiger and Emily wants to play are all hosted on the official playstation youtube channel? There are more examples, but I picked these for that reason. The stores are not the walled gardens you think they are. Just wanted to point that out.

Also steam reviews are invaluable as a customer. The negative reviews in particular because it's very easy to see if the complaints are relevant to you or not. Does the game have a design element that is a deal breaker that isn't apparent in the trailer? Technical issues? It all says there. You should be very suspicious of devs that doesn't want you to read that, and I say that as a dev myself.

I do fully sympathize with randy's frustration though. Review bombing is stupid, but doing to it to one game because another game isn't coming out soon enough on "your" platform is some next level retarded shit.

 

[demigod]

It’s weird how everyone everywhere seems to dislike Randy so much, I agree with him on this and always find him awesome when seeing him in public or in interviews. Maybe I’m just bias living so close to the Gearbox office and staff.

I’m an hour away from Frisco. I should visit Stonebriar Mall, maybe i’ll run into Randy trying to snitch or pickup underage girls.

 

[Pagusas]

I’m an hour away from Frisco. I should visit Stonebriar Mall, maybe i’ll run into Randy trying to snitch or pickup underage girls.

Visit WIllow Bend Mall while your at it, the new outdoor shopping area and food places are amazing! Check out Legacy West too.

 

[sol_bad]

Not having reviews for content that you can buy and possibly not enjoy would be ridiculous. Yes, grocery stores don’t need them, but you’d have to be stupid to think that they would be worse off with them. Plus in the grocery store, if I buy a can of Coke and I don’t like it, it doesn’t cost me 90 fucking dollars. Giving people the possibility to tell you their opinion on something that isn’t cheap is good.

That being said, I’m glad Epic are giving Steam a run for their money. Steam had too much control on the pc market and no one should have that much control.

I originally liked your post for the first paragraph but then removed the like after the second paragraph.
lol
Steam don't control anything what so ever. Not sure where you get that idea from.

 

[Tesseract]

I’m an hour away from Frisco. I should visit Stonebriar Mall, maybe i’ll run into Randy trying to snitch or pickup underage girls.

the pedo stuff seems over the line to me, what man doesn't like attractive 18yo women?

 

[Kenpachii]

 

[iconmaster]

the pedo stuff seems over the line to me, what man doesn't like attractive 18yo women?

And it was only for science!

Before I know it, I think the entire office looked at it. And there was one piece of content on here. And it never occurred to any of them that the reason why there was just that single porno was because of the magic trick

(from Ars)

Just a magic trick. Never occurred to any of them! Buncha hoodlums.

 

[Allnamestakenlol]

Probably already been said, but 'bad' is subjective. Who gets to decide what qualifies? If it was up to me, I can think of at least two Gearbox games that wouldn't be allowed.

 

[Shakka43]

Aren't Steam User reviews allowed only to those with a verifiable purchase? I mean, if i pay for something I sure as hell want my right to review it.

 

[LordRaptor]

I did give example you just can’t accept them...

If you're claiming that there are no bad games on the Sony, MS, or Apple storefronts, then you're full of shit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯