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One thing is for sure – the gaming industry is never boring. Recently, a scandal broke when Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of Borderlands 2, was accused of putting spyware in the game. Gearbox Software, the developer of Borderlands, quickly jumped in to defend Take-Two against these allegations.
So, what exactly happened? Take-Two and 2K Games updated their Terms of Service for all their games and included some quite strict policies. For example, you can be banned for a number of reasons, including using mods, VPN, cheats, etc. Also, the amount of collected data increased quite a lot. Naturally, players found these changes very concerning.
Borderlands 2 Developer Denies Spyware Claims
On June 7, Gearbox took directly to Steam and responded to harmful allegations. They explained they wanted to maintain transparency and confidence with the community.
The devs noted: “(1) Take-Two Does Not Use Spyware. Take-Two does not use spyware in its games. Take-Two’s Privacy Policy applies to all labels, studios, games, and services across all media and platform types such as console, PC, mobile app, and website”. They insisted: “Take-Two collects this information to deliver its services to players, including to protect the game environment and player experience”.
The devs clarified: “For example, player and device identifiers are collected in part to ensure the game is compatible with each player’s media, platform or website browser type. It allows us to better understand how players play games, and to personalize the user experience (like having usernames show up!). Account credentials are collected from users who choose to create accounts with Take-Two and its labels”.
They also addressed the issue with. They stated: “(2) Take-Two Does Not Permit Abusive Mods.
Take-Two’s Terms of Service prohibit mods that allow users to gain an unfair advantage, negatively impact the ability of other users to enjoy the game as intended, or allow users to gain access to content that the user is not entitled to. We do this to protect the integrity of the game experience for all users. Take-Two generally does not seek to take action against mods that are single-player only, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of its labels and third parties”.
Players Continue Review Bombing
Well, as you may have expected, the community didn’t really believe in Gearbox’s statement. It’s been several days, and the recent reviews on Steam are still overwhelmingly negative, with only 9% of reviews in the last 30 days being positive.
Players were truly disturbed by the recent changes in the Terms of Service. So much so that many players noted they wouldn’t be buying the long-awaited Borderlands 4, set to be released on September 12.
One player, leviathab13186, stated: “Unless I’m blind, I didn’t see anything about not selling our data. And before you start, I know Google and Apple, and a ton of other companies do it, but it’s still not OK. And if they want to do that, then I don’t feel bad about the pushback. Just because Company A does a bad thing doesn’t mean Company B just gets a pass”.
So, reading Terms of Service sometimes pays off. Many other gaming communities have had similar problems lately. Like Helldivers 2 and the updated EULA, or even Monster Hunter Wilds and the whole controversy around mods. Unfortunately, it’s become common practice for developers/publishers to change up Terms of Service without announcing the changes prior. What do you think about this, and will you still keep playing Borderlands?