UPDATE – April 2, 2019: Borderlands 3 developer, Gearbox Games, is either a terrible joker, or someone in 2K’s marketing department is in a lot of trouble if the latest leak about the game’s release date is anything to go by.
The Borderlands 3 social media team appears to have prematurely — or purposefully — posted a Tweet that listed Borderlands 3‘s release date as September 13. Further, it also had an icon for the Epic Games Store, suggesting Borderlands 3 may be released exclusively on the platform in what would be another huge scalp for Epic following the exclusive launches of Metro Exodus and Ashen.
The now-deleted Tweet was screencaped, as seen below.
Another snapshot has a video showing Borderlands 3‘s Epic Games Store exclusivity. Interestingly, Gearbox CEO, Randy Pitchford, jumped on Twitter to clarify on the Tweets, as well as the perceived digital store exclusivity.
“2K/Take Two has exclusive publishing rights for Borderlands 3 and makes all decisions regarding price-points, territories, distribution and platform partnerships,” he said. “Please direct all inquiries regarding any of those topics to 2K. We are *just* the talent.
“As a customer, I’m happy to shop in different stores – already do! I’ve bought games from Xbox, Playstation, Switch, Steam, Origin, GOG, Humble, Uplay, Epic and other stores. To me, exclusives are fine when they come w/ advantages and when they are short – say, six months.
“For what it’s worth, 2K’s decisions aside, myself and the team at Gearbox have a very keen interest in cross-platform play. We believe multi-platform support is a pre-requisite and Epic’s leadership with cross platform support is helpful to our interests there. “
ORIGINAL STORY: Gearbox (finally) unveiled Borderlands 3 yesterday after months/years of teasing fans of the open-world looting shooter franchise. While both the teaser trailer and gameplay trailer revealed little at first sight, there are hidden tidbits and easter eggs scattered throughout that tell us quite a bit about what we can expect in Borderlands 3, and when it might be released.
The original “Mask of Mayhem” trailer was stacked with references and Easter Eggs, as well as a handful of images of popular — and some intriguing new — characters that we should probably hope to see in the final game.
Interestingly, both trailers housed hidden codes, and even braille, and while all of this stuff was well hidden at first, it’s prompted the internet to — of course — put its investigation cap on to see just what Gearbox is up to with Borderlands 3.
The one big standout from the trailer, though? Aside from the obvious story and character references? That the release date may actually be stashed away in there. And we can thank Redditor Zottelpanda for finding that one.
If you watch the trailer, at exactly 1:43 you’ll notice some neon-lit skyscrapers. On the building directly in the middle you’ll notice a “01” painted on it.
Move ahead to exactly 1:54, and you’ll notice another building with a “10” on it.
So, here is where the hypothesis for Borderlands 3‘s release date comes from.
For those of us outside the US, “01/10” immediately stands out as “October 1”. In US date format, however, that stands for January 10, given they use the mm/dd/yyyy format vs the dd/mm/yyyy format used everywhere else.
The argument presented, however, is that the building with the “10” on it actually appears earlier in the trailer, at 1:39. So by that logic you could say, “10 + (10 – 1) = 19”, as 10 appears twice, albeit on the same building. If you go by that order as well for the date format, it would be 10/01, and we thus ignore the appearance of the second 10 outside of using it for the above equation. And with that, we get 10/1/2019. Or October 1, 2019.
The logic in trying to make it fit the US date format seems a bit too conspiracy theory for me, but given Gearbox is a US company I guess we’ll roll with it for now.
October 1, 2019 falls on a Tuesday, whereas January 10, 2020 falls on Friday. Both days are common for game releases in the US. Borderlands released on October 20, 2009, which was a Tuesday, whereas Borderlands 2 was out on September 18, 2012, also a Tuesday. The theme there is late-year releases, with The Pre-Sequel also launching in October.
Gearbox boss, Randy Pitchford, says we can expect a release date for Borderlands 3 on April 3, but until then, let’s just all embrace the fan theories, and agree on October 1 (or January 10 … whatever).
What do you think? October 1 or January 10, 2020? Sound off below!
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