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Borderlands 3 had a successful PC launch; concurrent players twice as high as Borderlands 2’s all-time peak

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Gearbox’s CEO, Randy Pitchford, has stated that the PC launch of Borderlands 3 was a success (from a business perspective, obviously). According to Pitchford, the launch-day peak concurrent players for Borderlands 3 were about twice as high as Borderlands 2’s all-time peak concurrent players.

Although Borderlands 3 is exclusive to the Epic Games Store, this data shows that the game sells well. Well, at least on its launch day. Furthermore, it’s really interesting that Pitchford did not share any initial sales figures (something that could have easily been affected by the game’s EGS exclusivity deal).

As we’ve already reported, the game suffers from some DX12 loading issues. Therefore, we suggest avoiding this build until – and if – Gearbox fixes it. Moreover, the game does not fully support ultrawide monitors.

There were also reports of major stuttering issues. We’ll publish a new article about these issues in a few hours. However, and in case you’re wondering, we did not experience that many stutters on our main PC configuration.

Lastly, it will be interesting to see whether the PC sales of Borderlands 3 will surpass those of Borderlands 2!

148 thoughts on “Borderlands 3 had a successful PC launch; concurrent players twice as high as Borderlands 2’s all-time peak”

      2. most people dont care if a game has always online drm or microtransactions, so i guess those 2 are fine then and every game should have em. I mean fck the consumer after all the average consumer is stupid and takes it up the butt.

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    2. No since you cant see actual numbers you can assume what you want and it wont matter. You think just because he said so and what ? steam users went to epic lol there is the same ammount of PC gamers as it was before now imagine that hmmmm they pull the game from steam users ? hhhmm you think people gonna go bend the knee to garbage store like epic store lol. Laughable

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    4. As the self-confessed Sony zealot console peasant that you are then it’s no surprise you’d side with anti-consumer business practices. After all, it’s what your corporate overlords have brainwashed you to do. gg

      Do carry on trolling for attention though! Maybe it’ll lessen the pain and humiliation for you of playing Control at 10fps on PS4 Pro and forget that Borderlands 3 is also capped at a laughable 30fps on your console. ?

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      2. Nothing anti consumer about the PS4, bud. It gave me the best gaming experiences of this generation. Only exception is the fact that you have to pay for online multiplayer, but keep in mind you also get 2 pretty good games every month included in that fee. Yeah, it’s kinda bullshit that you need a subscription to play online but everything else is great.

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          1. Most of my favorite games I’ve played in the last 5 years, so yeah. 30 fps also doesn’t bother me that much. God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon Zero Dawn, Bloodborne, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us Remastered (never had a PS3 so I got to play it for the first time on PS4), Days Gone (most underrated game), Gravity Rush 2, Persona 5, Until Dawn.

          2. So all of your favorite games are PS4 exclusives, there is no sign of a good multiplatform like The Witcher 3, Doom, MGSV or whatever… So in the end of the day you’re just a Sony fanboy like any other “if it’s not exclusive, it’s not good” or “it’s exclusive, it’s MUST be good”
            Sorry mate, as a PS4 Pro owner and PC Gamer, i think it’s a waste of time talking gaming with you, i love gaming, you love a brand…

          4. That’s the trouble mate they don’t as their too eager to just lambaste you. If you enjoy your PS4 then good for you just ignore these elitist idiots. I game on numerous devices other than my main PC.

          5. Also, MGSV was mediocre… The only other non exclusive games I thought were outstanding this generation are: The Witcher 3, Nier Automata, Doom, Titanfall 2, Dark Souls 3, Destiny (The Taken King and rise of Iron expansions), Destiny 2 (Forsaken expansion), Divinity Original Sin 2, Dragon Age Inquisition. I may be forgetting a few of them.

          6. Destiny and Divinity OS2 on the same sentence Jesus… And yes of course MGSV was mediocre because it doesn’t have a 1h cutscene that are appreciated by peasants

          9. You probably have to turn all the settings down to low on you sheet PC to get 60 fps anyway, so don’t talk to me about being in denial. lol

          11. Are you joking ? My PC is old, like really old compared to today standards and even then i played control mostly on a locked 1080p/60fps medium/high on a 970/3570k both OC, sure it’s not maxxed but it still a far better experience than what you have on consoles, specially since my pc is at least 5 years old.

          13. That’s so just basic AF it’s incomprehensible.

            I can’t fathom how a real person – not a robot – could play the same crap that’s been coming out for 25 years and say “these are my favorite games.”

            Like I just can’t stoop to that level of understanding. I must not have gotten high enough every day since I was 12.

            God of War 7 was enjoyable, sure, but there was absolutely nothing remarkable or new or unique about it.

            And the same goes for every other game you mentioned. Except Days Gone, that game is blatantly a 0/10.

        3. “Nothing anti consumer about the PS4, bud. It gave me the best gaming experiences of this generation.”

          HAHHAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHHA

          “Only exception is the fact that you have to pay for online multiplayer,”

          aBAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA

          Dude please stop.

          Now i get it, you dont mind that ps4 is junk because xbone is worse so you also dont mind that epic store is junk spyware junk either.

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          1. The thing is XB1 literally isn’t worse. It’s better in every possible way than the PS4 except for 4 first party exclusives Sony has (HZD, Uncharted 4, God of War, Spiderman).

            EVERY thing else about box is better. Transparency with MS, community feedback, the fact that they actually beta test patches with customers, cross-platform multiplayer, game pass, games with gold, cloud saves, more reliable servers, better UI Design, more powerful hardware, better streaming and recording features, better controller.

            Like it’s just straight up ridiculous what a better value – above all – and what a better experience xbox has always been since the original.

            I mean Microsoft went out of their way, or at least that’s what they want us to believe, to add original backwards compatibility when it wasn’t even on their to do list, just because people asked for it.

            Game pass alone makes it a better investment. You don’t even have to buy Xbox exclusives anymore, you get unlimited access to them just for paying $9.99 or whatever the price is for ultimate, for a month. On PC and on console. Though not always the same offering.

        4. You are of course entitled to believe whatever you wish to believe no matter how fanciful, naive and foolish it may be.

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        5. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

          “Nothing anti-consumer.”

          Sony: releases two separate pieces of hardware at different times without announcing the “good” version available at console launch.

          Very Sony: Gates VR features of third party multiplatform games exclusively behind PS by paying developer not to include that functionality on the actual VR platform, PC

          Also Sony: makes games not actually look decent without the more expensive version

          Also Sony: allows third party exclusives to release on other platforms and blatantly lies about other upcoming or existing third party exclusives to sell more units.

          Very Sony : Dangles the literal one exclusive on the system anyone actually wants in front of customers for 5+ years to get them to buy PS4s and isn’t going to tell them it won’t actually release until PS5 comes out.

          Also Sony: Offers literally 0 backwards compatibility whatsoever with PS1, PS2, PS3, Vita, or PSP games on PS4 except through PS Now, an extra $20 service.

          Also Sony: Only offers anything resembling that back compatibilitry through a $20 a month RDC service that is extremely laggy and unreliable

          Also Sony: Also doesn’t make any of your past PSN purchases available on PS4.

          Also Sony: Continues to offer separate $20 “gold” membership that rents you games that you can’t access as soon as you stop paying, and offers nothing of quality through that service.

          Also Sony: Literally none of your PS+ cloud saves, that you spend $20 for the privilege of having, are accessible through the PS Now that you pay $20 for.

          Also Sony: Doesn’t even introduce PS4 streaming for a couple years after launch.

          Sony executives and marketing people: Publicly trash competitor for gating online functionality behind a paywall, then do the same thing on PS4.

          Also Sony executives: Openly insults and antagonizes customers who want backwards compatibility, as well as the developers who made old games like GT3

          Classic PS3 era Sony: Floods their library with previous gen remasters, some them BARELY a year after the original came out while it is still on the market for $59,99

          Sony fan: “There’s nothing anti-consumer about the PS4.”

          Look I own a PS4, but be an adult. Seriously.

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          1. Sony: releases two separate pieces of hardware
            – 4 years apart

            Very Sony: Gates VR features of third party multiplatform games
            -Capcom’s fault for accepting.

            Also Sony: makes games not actually look decent without the more expensive version
            – I played Horizon Zero dawn and God of War on a base PS4 (non PRO). Still two of the best looking games I’ve ever played, on any platform.

            Also Sony: Offers literally 0 backwards compatibility whatsoever with PS1, PS2, PS3, Vita, or PSP games on PS4
            – Most people don’t care about backwards compatibility. Since the consoles have different architectures, actual work needs to be done to make those games work on PS4. Not worth investing resources for a feature that most people don’t care about. PS NOW uses an actual PS3 to stream those games.

            Also Sony: Continues to offer separate $20 “gold” membership that rents you games that you can’t access as soon as you stop paying, and offers nothing of quality through that service.
            – it’s $5 a month, not $20. Nothing of quality ? Every PS+ game they ever offered is above 75 on metacritic. This month they are offering Batman Arkham Knight and Darksiders 3. I enjoyed both of them.

      3. Why do you guys have to be so F….king obnoxious to people he didn’t attack you personally. Here’s an idea, why not let others have their own opinions without being such a….holes.

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        1. “people”

          no, there are a bunch of people on this site that are trolls.

          Kim calls everyone a pirate. fernado is a epic store shill, bizzy has horrible taste and is a sony pony and yelternerb is a lunatic asylum peasant that constantly sperges out at everyone.

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          1. Yeah I know of some of them, didn’t know this bizzy though.
            However, to be fair he wasn’t the one coming across as the douche.

          2. no he is a condensing “stop being so entitled, taking it up the butt as a consumer isnt so bad, most people dont care by the way ps4 is better than pc i had a better experience”

        2. “Why do you guys have to be so F….king obnoxious to people”
          Maybe, just maybe, he’s reaping what he sows because it’s a consequence of him having a long history here of being a “f*cking obnoxious” troll himself. Feel free to educate yourself on the matter by viewing his post history if that’s not too much effort for you.

          “Here’s an idea, why not…”
          Here’s an idea, why not go find yourself a safe space so to spare us all from any further crying and other beta conduct.

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          1. You really are an unpleasant individual, always negative and spreading toxic comments on here. You must have a pathetically, lonely, sad life, my condolences.

          2. You escaped from Polygon or some leftist sh*t ?? There is no safe space for you or for him here, go back to the sh*t pile you came from and brag about how you were offended

          4. “toxic”

            As an NPC using that vernacular the aforementioned safe space at Polygon, PC Gamer or Kotaku would be highly recommended for you. Ignore your own obviously apparent double-standards and evident lack of self-awareness while enjoying the milk and cookies there.

          7. If he’s so pathetic, you should have little trouble in silencing him with argument. Instead, you toss words like “toxic”, and “pathetic”, and just expect them to carry inarguable weight.

            Protip, bud. That’s not gonna get you very far. The SJW storm, is merely a fart in the wind, magnified artificially, through a megaphone. You’re practically alone, as you can tell.

          10. ironically, pcgamer (lame jokes( and polygon (bug fest, backtracking )was actually accurate in their BL3 reviews

        1. Digital Foundry since clarified that the game on PS4 Pro has two modes – ‘Performance’ and ‘Resolution’. The former is 1080p with a targeted 60fps that is seldom ever maintained. The latter is 1800p with a targeted 30fps that also is seldom maintained. It’s a janky mess either way and Digital Foundry diplomatically crucified the PS4 Pro version for being a shambles.

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  2. surprised noone ever after the massive campaign …. and its been like 7 years since Blands2 – too bad its such a technical mess

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  3. A highly-anticipated sequel backed-up by massive marketing coming out in the age of streamers. Of course it will a financially-successful launch regardless of store client.

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  6. Duh, Borderlands is too big to fail or flop, people who complain and want to boycott are like a 1% of the normie average gamers population who don’t care enough to think about these things I guess.

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  7. Ohhh look and another one speaking about succes rate and epic games store without any proof or actual charts/numbers. Hhhhmmm I seen somewhere that before hhhmmm metro exodus ? dead game ? Only an idiot would believe Randy
    Pitchford who is confirmed liar and hurting his employees.

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    1. Indeed. As the article correctly states, “Pitchford did not share any initial sales figures”. As always with Epic Games Store-related bold PR claims the stench of BS is apparent.

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      1. PR always say something good and different from the truth, nice try Pitchford but i don’t believe anything without any proof.

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  9. I hope you realize that it’s trolls who don’t even own the game spamming 0 score reviews with multiple accounts.

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    2. I hope you realise that it’s bots and shills like you spamming 10/10 user review ratings with multiple accounts… and yet you still failed abysmally to manipulate the outcome to your corporate overlord’s satisfaction.

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    1. takes your news from the Quartering in 2019 ? lmao how many times and times was this guy proven to be just an outrage vulture who take a tweet or two and make a 15 video about it lol grow up

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      2. > how many times and times was this guy proven to be just an outrage
        vulture who take a tweet or two and make a 15 video about it lol grow up

        Show me where?

        I hear all you little b*tches whining about him every day, yet I haven’t seen a single shred of evidence against him.

        You girls are just getting triggered because of him, simple.

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      3. >posts semi-literate comment
        >begins sentence with “lmao”
        >punctuation that’d embarrass a seven year old

        >proceeds to tell others to “lol grow up”

        gg

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          1. He built himself a luxury garden shed from the proceeds of his Brieeeeeee Larson videos. Successfully monetising SJW idiocy is to be applauded, imo.

          2. Not from my point of view, he may be fighting SJW, but that doesn’t automatically makes him cool, just for that. He kinda is a vulture and he actually does 15 videos from 2 stupid tweets or even 2 stupid sentences taken from whoever he doesn’t agree with.

          3. Gross exaggeration but I know what you’re trying to say. Such is the way of things with modern-day web publishing and the nature of YouTube’s business model. At least he doesn’t intentionally outright lie like much of the Leftist dominated mainstream media does and, when he does make mistakes, at least he has the humility to own those mistakes.

          4. Ofc it’s an exaggeration, but i used it as a figure of speech, anyway i’m aware of his qualities, although he also has some negative sides to that into account and honestly that doesn’t make him that cool.

          1. Pretty sure I’m aware that the world consists of more than the USA and Great Britain alone but thanks for clarifying all the same.

        3. Far too common these days. People who can’t spell, try to spell things phonetically, or can’t discern the difference between homonyms. When you call them out for being the cement headed dolts they are, they try to label “you”, as the idiot.

          Idiocracy is encroaching upon humanity.

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          2. I know 4 languages what do you know ? I could care less if my 4th language that I learned simply from gaming is not perfect.

          4. Sorry Mr self proclaimed linguist, but languages have different levels of proficiency. As long as you can speak and write in a comprehensible way you are proficient to certain degree. My English is not perfect sure, however you can understand me perfectly and according to the CEFR my English level is C1 so which is seen as proficient according to linguists in the field.And I’ve learned that on my own from frigging games only. I’m not that far behind as these retards here are claiming because that’s the only thing people on DSO know because it’s a cesspool of incels and negative weirdos who have nothing better to do 😉

          5. This kid is legitimately trying to argue his lack of fluency by introducing shades of grey.

            If you can’t (or you won’t) type a grammatically sound sentence, with words that are spelled correctly and used correctly, you aren’t fluent.

            PS Linguists are wrong.

          6. Hmm, let’s see. I know 4 as well. Amazing, I know.

            Protip, my first language isn’t English either. Amazing what you can learn, when you are……. you know, willing to learn.

            PS. It actually goes “I ‘couldn’t’ care less”. If you “could” care less, then you have lower to go. See? You’re learning……. I hope.

          7. Like I said I’ve learned English for the sole reason of gaming. I don’t care if it’s not that good.It’s not related to my job nor my Academic background. Now go watch more Quartering and comment your usual toxic wastes with your chubby greasy fingers to make yourself feel better about your sad pathetic life.
            And I’m certain that your 4th language is not perfect either so don’t lie to yourself virgin.

          8. just ignore them. theyd rather talk about how well they use their commas instead of the the topic at hand

          9. the idiots here are the guys picking at a comments punctuation on an international video game news website

        4. I know 4 languages English is the 4th one, point of language is communication. As long as I got my point across I’m okey with it. What about you ? what other languages do you know other than the one that you got from your mum without putting any effort 🙂 ?
          You are literally the most pathetic person I have seen online in years. You thrive in negative environment all you say is negative I’m surprised you haven’t hanged yourself yet.
          go find another thread where you will say something negative again and make fun of people’s grammar while you only know one sh**ty language.

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        5. complains about a comments use of words and punctuation, then ends own comment with “gg”..

          his comment was quite clear if you have trouble understanding it maybe its you who needs to check on their english?
          and going for punctuation while ignoring the argument seems real bad. especially on the internet where a lot of people dont have english as their mother language

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          1. The fun thing about semi- is that it’s a modifier and doesn’t have to be a “real word” to be combined with an existing word into a real word. Same goes for demi, quasi, and any other hyphenated antecedent.

      4. Aside from the news about borderlands yes Quartering is a sponge that absorbs any info in seconds and produce a video and acts like a tough guy on twitter just to boost views.

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      1. GAME IS EXCELENT said the moron because borderlands 3 isnt more borderlands 2 but with the difference there are a ton of borderlands clones out here these days.

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  17. according to steamdb

    Borderlands 2
    124,678
    all-time player peak
    7 years ago

    so if its true, its only sell 250K more or less. LOL!

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    2. That is interesting considering Steam has 10 million+ more concurrent users today than it had 7 years ago. Does not seem like something he should be boasting about to me.

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  19. believe what randy says lol this is one of his magic tricks isn’t it.

    for people supporting epic store – most hate epic store because it doesn’t even have any basic features i mean you are spending 50-60$ for this least they can do is add achievements and activity feed whatnot which are not hard given they have money for it. by now they could have give users all the basic stuff launcher supposed to have but they choose not to just because people keep defending/supporting them with bs which is laughable [devs will get more money no they dont unless its indie dev none of AAA game devs are going to see penny of that]. even indie devs they have to be exclusive or else they are mocked or waved good bye yes epic cares about devs alot get your shit together before you support some corporation they wont give you any thing buddy money is the only thing they understand and i choose not to buy from their store unless they update that store and launcher.
    FYI gog galaxy is better launcher than epic right now and its not even big company like epic so figure it out. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2670de4b4a14fcaf1fb63c5b074bcee9924def925239142d4f36041af573b6a5.jpg

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  20. Dear Randy,

    Allow me to remind you that the gaming industry, as well as the playerbase in general, both have significantly grown since 2012. Therefore, you may have a bigger number than you ever had before, but two questions arise at this particular moment:

    1. Can you actually KEEP the numbers high, or will you drop faster than a rock, as seen with games like Lawbreakers?
    2. Why should people believe you after this “limited”, and, in my opinion, paid reviews for the first round?

    Nobody even provides figures for such information, so, as always:
    CITATION NEEDED, RANDY

    …ps: not going to buy this game, you can shove your 2 megabit upload requiring, Denuvo-riddled pre-alpha up where the Sun doesn’t shine

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    1. Yeah show us those numbers RANDY we need citations. Don’t fake those numbers either RANDY because we all know you would. Show us the real numbers RANDY we didn’t come here for a reading test, we want to see some credentials.

      RANDY!

      #BoycottBL

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  21. That’s a lot of users for Take-Two to be once more contracting the services of goons to visit their homes to intimidate them into silence!

    As for the critics’ rating then it’s already been reported that Take-Two were very selective in cherry-picking which ‘journalists’ from the widely discredited access media received review copies of the game. Those with a history of having been honest about Take-Two’s past games were sent review copies much later than the rest as an obvious ploy to cynically manipulate the initial outcome and consequently hoodwink the consumer. Disgraceful.

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  24. You have to be a bonfide moron, to trust a single word out of this piece of s**t. I have no words for the level of stupidity you suffer from, if you believe this.

    “…it’s really interesting that Pitchford did not share any initial sales figures (something that could have easily been affected by the game’s EGS exclusivity deal).”

    Interesting? Really? You find it “interesting” that he doesn’t share a single shred of evidence?

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  26. How does this make any sense? There are TWICE as many concurrent players as their best regarded BL game, in this short of time, while the game is getting universally lambasted? Did logic take the year off, or what?

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  29. He’s so obviously selling us some grade ‘A’ bullshit. I mean as if you’d openly make a comment congratulating the PC community for their support when those bastards sold out to Epic. Every true PC gamer knows Epic has and always will be trash and can burn in hell. How dare these developers. How dare they!

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  30. Funny, I was one of Borderlands biggest fans, up until you sold out to Epic, So If I boycotted your game, just how many others like me also did? which must mean Randy, you are lair and a deceit.

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  31. Well some Steam whiners aren’t going to like this news. They will downplay it as much as they possibly can though like they did with the very successful Metro Exodus.

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  32. And yet according to multiple sources the pc version is a technical mess, i guess some people love to punish themselves probably some grade A cucks.

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    1. was that the game that went free to play for a week two weeks after launch
      so that they can trick their investors ? HU !

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      1. I guess it had a free weekend or something, thats what they do, patting their own backs for a fake successful launch day followed by a huge discount and some positive PR bulls*it without any data to back them up, then i guess even them forget that their game existed in the first place.

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  36. Randy Pitchfork said it. I dont need anymore proofs. John doesnt need them too. Didnt know twitter posts can be used as “data”, I´m going to tell my statistics teacher.

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  37. how about comparing it to the first one you know the good one ?

    and fun fact doesn’t Randy have a court case for soliciting with a minor !

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  39. I’ve seen one person who loves it but I would most definitely label this guy as a casual. Most gamers are casuals. Actually I know another person who likes it, from work, and he’s a moron just like most mid-20s people. He tried to get in an argument with me about Epic Store on Friday and the entire group chat destroyed him, then he acted like I was deflecting his arguments, which was just him projecting because he utterly declined to ever do any research whatsoever about the Epic Store.

    So his opinion is meaningless, as you can see. The first guy also can’t comprehend the reasons EGS is awful. Shocking.

    Reply

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