Two weeks without content, two private investigators, and Take-Two. This is the story told by Matt “SupMatto” Somers, a prominent Borderlands YouTuber, who earlier this week published a video claiming Take-Two (the company that owns Borderlands publisher 2K) sent investigators to his house over leaks he’d covered on his channel. Since the video’s publication, #BoycottBorderlands3 has been intermittently trending on Twitter, and Take-Two has now formally addressed the situation – although accounts of what happened seem to differ.
According to Somers, on the 25th July two private investigators sent by Take-Two “showed up to my home, trespassed on my private property and questioned me”. The topics discussed apparently included his coverage of SteamDB developments and the Rainbow item rarity found in the Fight for Sanctuary DLC. During the video, Somers also explained how he received information about a Twitch exploit, which allowed users to access unreleased gameplay footage and datamine new information.
“On April 29th the official Borderlands YouTube channel posted the reveal of the Twitch extension leading into the gameplay reveal… and the name of the testing accounts were exposed in that video,” Somers said. “This wasn’t found by me.”
But Take-Two seems to think otherwise: in an official statement to IGN, 2K confirmed Somers had been under investigation, but said much of the information shared by the YouTuber was “incomplete, and in some cases untrue”.
“Take Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously,” a 2K Games representative said. “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 copyright.”
“Not only were many of his actions illegal, but they were negatively impacting the experience of other content creators and our fans in anticipation for the game.”
While Take-Two didn’t specify exactly what the illegal activity was, 2K did tell IGN that the Twitch streams Somers used as sources (and claimed were public) were actually set to private. Sources also told IGN that Somers previously offered perks of further leaked Borderlands 3 information for a $5 (£4.11) membership to his YouTube channel, which gave access to his private Discord server.
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The whole episode hasn’t gone down well with the Borderlands community, many of whom take issue with the use of intimidation tactics to deal with the situation. The #BoycottBorderlands3 hashtag is currently awash with complaints that Take-Two’s use of private investigators over game leaks was disproportionate, with others backing Somers’ claims that the information was already public. Many, however, feel the boycott is unrealistic, while some argue it would punish the developers more than upper management.