YouTube SupMatto has landed in a really strange situation as he has become the target of direct harassment over a game he loves. That game is Borderlands 3, and the instigator of the harassment will surprise you.
Take Two Interactive, the publisher behind the project and owner of developer 2K, is the one behind this whole shebang of nonsense. You see, the Borderlands community happened upon some interesting leaks surrounding the recently announced Twitch integrations within the new shooter. SupMatto claimed he was unfairly and excessively targeted by the publisher after he began discussing these leaks online.
The leaks themselves were not uncovered by SupMatto, and were apparently gained by going directly to Twitch archives featured in certain gameplay snippets. It wasn’t hard to find, and it seemingly was not some intentional internal leak either. That fact didn’t stop Take Two from hiring thugs private detectives to identify SupMatto and then show up at his home to interrogate him over Borderlands 3.
Yes, a private company hired a third-party to identify and harass one of their fans. And here’s their terribly dystopian response:
“Take Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously,” a 2K representative told The Verge. “The action we’ve taken is the result of a 10-month investigation and a history of this creator profiting from breaking our policies, leaking confidential information about our product, and infringing our copyrights.”
The company further justified their actions by saying “The information he’s sharing about the situation is incomplete, and in some cases untrue,” a representative said. “Not only were many of his actions illegal, but they were negatively impacting the experiences of other content creators and our fans in anticipation for the game.”
As one could expect, this isn’t a fun situation to be in. “I was very tense, as many of you could imagine, having two people in suits you don’t know show up at your home,” SupMatto said, adding further, “I will add that since I’ve had time to reflect on the situation, I’d say excitement got the better of my judgment,” SupMatto stated. “As an adult, as someone who’s thought about it, it was a pretty shitty thing to do.”
He also made it clear that many outlets and individuals commenting on this issue don’t have all the facts and that he wants to set the record straight. He has decided to take time away from online activities following this situation, and no, Take-Two did not get his Twitter shut down. They did however force the shutdown of his Discord server.
I for one was already convinced by the idiotic behavior of Randy Pitchford not to purchase Borderlands 3, and this latest controversy and the mealy-mouthed defense of their actions by Take Two just cemented that idea. Way to go Randy. And if you need a refresher on what Randy has done to sour the game for some of us, it’s quite the list.
Allegedly assaulting employees and stealing millions in employee bonuses was bad enough. Then Pitchford shared an animal cruelty video on Twitter. He also has quite the penchant for getting into spats with journalists and personalities, even directly trying to stir up drama with Jim Sterling. All in all, Pitchford is kind of strange to put it way too nicely.
You can find his full video down below.
https://youtu.be/gRR-C1OCIWM
Borderlands 3 arrives on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on September 13, 2019.
