Borderlands 3 Releases on Steam
On March 13, 2020, Borderlands 3 will be available on Steam. On this day the 6-months exclusivity deal with the Epic Store comes to an end. While Borderlands 3 still sold like hot cookies on the Epic’s Marketplace, a bunch of gamers preferred to buy the game on Valve’s Marketplace, Steam. If you are one of the folks that waited for this release, then you will be getting the best Borderlands 3 experience. Since the release of Borderlands 3, Gearbox Software made a lot of Quality of Life improvements. The game runs smoother, they added dedicated drop locations, increased the legendary drop rates, and many more things.
Update: Borderlands 3 will also be available for Pre-Load on Steam starting March 10, 2020.
Exclusivity Deal
While Steam has traditionally been THE digital store for PC games, Borderlands 3 sadly wasn’t available on Valve’s store at launch. Borderlands 3 publisher, 2K Games, made an exclusive deal with Epic Games for the release of the game. Borderlands 3 had a 6-month exclusivity deal on the EPIC Games Store. During the announcement, there was no official confirmation that Borderlands 3 would be coming to Steam. A press release did state that Borderlands 3 will be available for purchase on other digital distribution platforms after the 6-month exclusivity period. This meant that Borderlands 3 could potentially release on April 13, 2020, when the 6-months exclusivity deal with EPIC’s Game Store ends. While the initial press release didn’t explicitly mention Steam, it is still the biggest PC platform to date. And here we are today, Borderlands 3 is releasing on Steam. So we won’t have to go over the whole debate if we gamers should accept the Epic launcher onto our rigs.
Cross-platform
The next big question when Borderlands 3 finally gets released on Steam is if PC players can play with their friends who purchased the game on EPIC’s Games Store. You don’t have to worry about that. Tim Sweeney, CEO of EPIC, has said that they will allow gamers to play together regardless of their platform or storefront they purchased the game on.
Update: Crossplay for PC players will also be available on March 13, 2020. Thanks to some new SHiFT matchmaking functionality, you’ll be able to add friends to your Friends List, join co-op parties, and play together online regardless of which PC platform each player is using. Gearbox plans to roll out additional PC crossplay features – such as the ability to mail weapons across platforms – in the weeks following the game’s launch on Steam.
Bruno Carson
nice, maybe i’ll finally buy it