Gearbox Software announced a whole bunch of limited and retail editions for Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, which they’re offering through distributor G2A – and many fans weren’t happy about this decision. This was noticed by Gearbox, who made various ultimatums to the company.
Now, following clearly no public movement from G2A to remedy the issues plaguing their distribution and reimbursement of consumers before, Gearbox is making good on their ultimatum by starting the process of breaking up with G2A as their distributor.
The company issued a statement to Polygon:
“As there has been no public movement from G2A by the time Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition launched now on PC,” said head of Gearbox publishing, Steve Gibson. “Gearbox Publishing will be doing their part to not directly support a marketplace that did not make the new public commitment to protecting customers and developers requested by Gearbox Publishing. We do not control G2A’s marketplace or where they may obtain keys from parties outside of Gearbox Publishing, but we can confirm that today we have begun executing on our extraction process.”
Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition launches today across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Uncle Ocelot
April 7, 2017 at 7:33 pmWhat a fucking blunder
Boz
April 7, 2017 at 7:49 pmYeah the idiots at Gearbox knew nothing about G2A’s shady business practices * rolls eyes. Truly more surprised GB isn’t announcing that they are grateful to G2A for this partnership.
artemisthemp
April 7, 2017 at 8:35 pmBy shaddy you mean key ain’t guaranteed to work unless you pay for protection?
Himegami Aisa
April 7, 2017 at 8:59 pmShady like rife with keys acquired by fraud, whether it be dodgy Russians claiming to be Youtubers or defrauding companies with stolen credit cards, like with Mangagamer as reported on this site. Yes, the company itself isn’t directly engaging in criminal behaviour, but its whole business model is built around facilitating it. Several devs have come out saying you’re better off just fucking torrenting than buying a key from them, and for good reason.
braneman
April 7, 2017 at 9:03 pmI also read another article that their legit keys presumably bought in poorer countries because people can’t afford normal US dollar prices over there encourage devs to charge like they do in Australia plus a little extra to compensate for currency fluxuations. So you end up with games actually costing more in poorer countries.
Kessek
April 7, 2017 at 9:28 pmDamage control.
OldPalpy
April 7, 2017 at 11:19 pmGearbox is run by fucking idiots so it wouldn’t surprise me, like if they knew they were shady they would have known this would have caused a shitstorm unless they’ve really had their heads in the sand for the past five years and thought they could simply just get away with it. They’ve had a target on their back for awhile now so something like this is the most possible PR move they can make as it also rallies devs who’ve been fucked over by G2A against them.
Neojames82
April 7, 2017 at 11:40 pmWell that was a big fucking turnabout wasn’t it? XD
Fenrir007
April 8, 2017 at 12:40 amThe only way Gearbox could fuck up harder would be by hiring Tim Schaffer as their manager. It’s one fuck up after the other.
Rob Simple
April 8, 2017 at 2:58 amWell, at least they kept their word and pulled out of the deal when G2A refused to budge on their position of being scumfucks.
If only GB had done a two-second Google search before jumping into bed with them in the first place…
Ninjagai
April 8, 2017 at 6:35 pmThis is the most excitement anyone has ever expressed towards Bulletstorm. I actually like the game, and I don’t care.
Malcolm_Ecks
April 8, 2017 at 7:38 pm“GEARBOX CUTS OFF G2A”
Now if they’d cut off about %50 of the price for a 6 year old game that’d be nice.
DrearierSpider
April 10, 2017 at 10:04 amYou think a giant publisher like them didn’t look into their partners? It’s obvious they just went ahead anyways and hoped no one would say anything. This is the company that built a pre-release demo that was completely absent from the final game solely to woo journalists after all.
Rob Simple
April 10, 2017 at 3:34 pmI’m never sure with Gearbox, they are so awful it’s hard to tell if they’re actually maybe just really, astoundingly incompetent.
Zombie_Barioth
April 11, 2017 at 1:44 amMy guess is they either didn’t realize/give a crap about G2A’s reputation, or bought into their alleged turning a new leaf after the TinyBuild fiasco.
G2A like many shady as shit companies likes to fake change and pretend to give a shit to save face, then its back to business as usual.
They’re currently claiming to already do everything Gearbox demanded them to start doing, and playing the misunderstood victim blaming guys like TotalBiscuit for not having their facts straight.
OldPalpy
April 11, 2017 at 2:00 amHow long until they claim that they’re victims of the Internet Hate Machine TM and that G2A is actually a progressive storefront fighting against the oppressive problematic Steam?
Zombie_Barioth
April 11, 2017 at 4:18 amThe latter I think they’ve basically done at one point, the former I wouldn’t be surprised to see.
Some of their loyal fans already put the blame on publishers and Steam for over-pricing their games.
Wouldn’t be much of a stretch for G2A to paint themselves as some sort of Robin Hood.