If you need to play the PC version of Borderlands 3 the instant it launches, here’s a bit of bad news: the Epic Games store will not support pre-loading by the Borderlands 3 release date. Epic boss Tim Sweeney has confirmed the news on Twitter, which will no doubt add yet another dose of gasoline to the burning fire of discourse around the platform.
In response to a fan’s inquiry, Sweeney tweets “I’m sorry, we won’t have support for pre-loading in the Borderlands release timeframe.” Pre-loading does technically exist for some third-party titles on the store, but Sweeney follows up to say “it’s complicated. We’ve released support for file preloading which is sufficient for some games, but we aren’t certain it’s up to the demands of a blockbuster like Borderlands.”
While a lack of features comparable to Steam has been one of the chief complaints against the Epic store, the company’s been pretty slow to close the gap. A wide selection of updates noted on the store roadmap have been delayed, including player time tracking, patch size improvements, and a broader store redesign.
Criticism of the Epic store has, of course, ranged beyond dismay over missing features and big-money exclusive deals into broader vitriol and direct harassment of developers who’ve taken up those agreements.
In the meantime, heat over exclusivity hasn’t stopped titles like MechWarrior 5, Phoenix Point, and Ooblets from going to the Epic store. How the platform wars shake out remains to be seen, but it looks like Epic’s plan of purchasing timed exclusives isn’t coming to an end any time soon.