We may earn a commission when you buy through links in our articles. Learn more.

Take-Two’s investigation of Borderlands 3 YouTuber has some fans threatening a boycott

The hashtag #BoycottBorderlands3 has been surfacing on Twitter

borderlands-3-zane

Earlier this week Borderlands fan and YouTuber Matt “SupMatto” Somers alleged that private investigators sent by Take-Two Interactive turned up at his property and questioned him about the content of some of his videos. Now, it’s been confirmed that Somers’ videos have been the subject of a wider investigation by the company – but some fans have some concerns.

As reported by IGN, the YouTuber uploaded a video earlier this week in which he discussed the event. He claimed that two investigators sent by Take-Two – the parent company of Borderlands publisher 2K – asked him about some content he was said to have leaked on his channel. Somers says that they spoke about DLC findings regarding Rainbow item rarity and some SteamDB information.

The YouTuber also mentioned an exploit for Twitch he’d learned about, which could apparently allow people to access unreleased information and footage for Borderlands 3. While he acknowledged that he’d shared some information, he said that “it’s not some crafty work-around”, and that “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,” adding “this wasn’t found by me.”

However, it looks like 2K has another perspective on the situation. The company has spoken to IGN and alleges that his Borderlands 3 leaks aren’t just limited to the Twitch extension. As the site highlights, dating as far back as 2018, some other videos posted by Somers also contained accurate game details months before the game was officially revealed.

2K also told IGN that the YouTuber’s Twitch stream sources were not set as public, but private, and that his community was able to do some datamining to dig up content from private test streams following a Twitch security exploit.

The company said that “Take-Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously. 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.”

Now, as reported by Eurogamer, the hashtag #BoycottBorderlands3 is currently surfacing on Twitter, with some people raising questions about the proportionality of Take-Two using private investigators to approach Somers. According to IGN, it doesn’t look like Take-Two is currently planning to take legal action against Somers.