Epic snags Borderlands 3 timed exclusive

Publisher 2K Games has confirmed that the recently-announced Borderlands 3 will be arriving in mid-September this year - and that it will, as is becoming common, be a timed exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Announced by developer Gearbox late last month, alongside a Game of the Year Edition update to the original Borderlands which introduces some of the quality-of-life features found in its sequels, Borderlands 3 will be the fourth entry in the cel-shaded gun-looting action role-playing game (ARPG) first-person shooter (FPS) franchise after Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.

It will also, its publisher 2K Games has confirmed, be exclusive to the Epic Games Store - the latest in a broad range of titles, including Metro Exodus and The Division 2, whose publishers have chosen to avail themselves of Epic's promised higher revenue share and other, less public, incentives.

Like the other third-party exclusives, the deal comes with a time limit - and it's one half the length of other exclusives on the Epic Games Store, suggesting 2K Games did better than its rivals in the negotiations: Borderlands 3 will launch on the Epic Games Store on September 13th, then come to Steam and any other rival distribution service it fancies six months after.

The deal seemingly contradicts a comment made by Epic Games' Steve Allison in March this year in which he claimed the company doesn't 'want to do that ever again', referring to consumer backlash over its increasingly unpopular tactic of gazumping titles from rival Valve's Steam platform - a comment which has been clarified by Epic boss Tim Sweeney via Twitter to mean that 'Epic is open to continuing to sign funding/exclusivity deals with willing developers and publishers regardless of their previous plans or announcements around Steam.'

2K Games has confirmed four variants of the title, from the standard edition all the way up to the Diamond Loot Chest Collector's Edition which comes with a replica of its eponymous loot container, ten character figurines each three inches tall, a snap model of Sanctuary 3, four Vault Key keychains, a cloth map of the newly expanded galaxy, five character art lithographs, and a steelbook case for the game itself.