Borderlands launched on Steam overnight. Or at least it was meant to. Turns out it did in North America, but not in Australia or Europe.
Borderlands was meant to unlock on Steam at 2am AEST, October 27. There was a countdown clock and everything. But then disaster struck, as relayed by the following post on the Steam community forum from Valve representative Alden:
“Sorry for the confusion, guys. There was a slight mix-up with the release dates. North America will be releasing in an hour or so while Europe, Australia, etc. will be releasing 12:01am GMT on the 30th.
The count-down you see on the page now should be accurate.”
Cue much vitriol from Australians and Europeans on the forums as US and Canadian gamers were shooting skags on Pandora.
ArcticJoel was so furious he downloaded it again: “I`m getting it elsewere right now. Hey… I bought it on steam and im ♥♥♥♥ing getting it tonight! Its not piracy if you already own the game right? Screw this delay bullshait.”
Wazgrel was eloquent in his anger: “Words cannot express how I feel about this whole situation…”
Enigma182 displayed remarkable restraint: “I didn’t blame anyone I understand these things happen, it did with TF2 prerelease also. I’m just dissapointed in general.”
Muxen’s solitary contribution to the debate read: “♥♥♥♥ off, you guys are bunch of ♥♥♥♥ters, last game I bought over steam.”
Flinchy is now banned: “what the ♥♥♥♥, why do us aussies get shafted???? we already had to wait a whole ♥♥♥♥ing week after consoles, now even america gets to play before us you have my ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ money, the game is RELEASED FFS last time i buy a game on steam, i’d rather pay full price and get to play (and at least return it if i dont like it) ♥♥♥♥ you steam.”
Some bellowed that they would demand a full refund. Others wiped spit from their lips as they ranted about taking Valve and 2K to court. Sane people pointed out that the official release date has always been October 30 and that it’s really not that far away.
Compounding the drama, Games.on.net is reporting that the wrong version of Borderlands has been made available to Aussie gamers. If you downloaded the game off Steam, you will have the “low violence” version. However, 2K has claimed this is an error and this version of the game was never intended for Australia. They’re working with Steam to make the “full violence” version available as soon as possible.
[Thanks to Brendan, Cameron, Matt P and everyone else who tipped this story.]
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