Borderlands 3 and Leakers

Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3 General Discussion
#82

Ok well since it’s been brought up.

There’s one particular bit during Sup’s video that… gives me pause. I’ll paraphrase it but “The guys trespassed and came to my house and asked me questions. I’ve talked to lawyers afterwards and stupidly I answered them. I don’t remember what I said because I was so stressed about what was happening.”

… There are some takeaways there.

  1. The use of the word “trespass” seems pretty specific as he’s already talked to lawyers. There (might) be something down the line for that? Like I mentioned in my but about PI’s, most are well aware of what they can do in the state they operated in and it’s not like 2k/t2 are looking for bargain basement guys. Maybe there’s something there I don’t know about.

  2. Is what gets my conspiracy juice flowing. And I’m going to say before I say this that everything I’m about to say is very unsubstantiated and is given as a guess. I’m not accusing Sup of anything because why would I know that? I know less than most of you what this guy is about. But the statement “I stupidly talked to them; i don’t remember what I said”…

… I think it’s entirely possible that he did have a source, that he was the focal point of an internal civil case being lead by T2/2K… and he gave that source up to the PI’s when he came to his house. If the source had an NDA, then they’d like invoke termination and fines immediately with little recourse, and frankly we’d never have to hear about it. It’s also the desired outcome of this whole idea with the PI’s. Like I mentioned earlier on, this is an intimidation factor where two guys in suits come up to your house and say legal terms. It’s easy for us to go “oh well I know my rights I’d do x or y” but when someone is there with official looking documents because that one guy you know who kind of likes you gave you some extra juicy data for your channel… and they say it aaaaaaaaaaaaalllll goes away if you give them a name… It seems super advantageous at that moment to give them a name.

Again, this is a tinfoil hat theory of mine. I don’t know Sup, and if this is the case… he probably can’t tell us. 2K/T2 is under no obligation to tell us, so they won’t. I have utterly no proof and I’m not accusing anyone… I’m just saying in my head… it seems like it could have happened.

1 Like
#83

It all comes down to how people react when put under pressure. You don’t give a ■■■■ about your own rights of you are in panic.

1 Like
#85

Very very much so. Everyone is a quarterback on monday morning.

I feel like I need to stress again that all that above is just me… theorizing. We barely know specifics about what was being looked for, we don’t know if he even had a source, we sure as ■■■■ don’t know what was said when the PI’s were there (and for sure, never will). I’m not accusing him of ■■■■, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility for me and if it is true, I would not blame him for a second.

#86

I feel bad for the guy. He’s clearly a superfan. His excitement and enthusiasm is palpable in his videos. He’s incredibly resourceful, and because of that, he took a lot of scheit from skeptics on Reddit who thought it was all BS to draw the gullible to his channel, and subsequently ran him off of Reddit. I wasn’t one of those ‘burn the witch’ people, but I was definitely skeptical of info from unnamed, supposedly inside sources.

Then it turned out he was spot on about everything. And then he gets destroyed by the games publisher for, most likely or at the very least possibly, being somehow connected to a situation involving a legal case that really doesn’t have anything to do with him. He scooped everybody. He was out in front of all this stuff and in the end he gets banished from Pandora by real-life Handsome Jacks.

(Again, the caveat unless he was sharing leaked info for profit, then he kinda had it coming - not saying that’s true, but only ‘if’.)

1 Like
#87

2K? now made 63 copyright strikes which resulted in all videos from him about BL3 gone…

1 Like
#88

Wait, what?

#89

There are only his Lore videos left and as I understand it his whole channel will get terminated in 7 days.

1 Like
#90

Personally i’m against the leakers and the data miners / hackers. I didn’t watch his content. Not because i didn’t like him, i just don’t want to know.

Most games (most) now have substantial press and media coverage prior to launch. They spend a lot of money on going to the game shows and Gearbox themselves had a big conference inviting players along, and 2K recently invited creators to their offices.

I’ll always watch enough of what i want to see and block the rest out. Other people want to know as much as possible. Same with films, i’ll virtually block them out totally after watching 1 trailer.

Data mining and hacking games or providing leaked info into social media early is for their own gain, but in many situations will be breaking rules and regulations and licence agreements. So anyone doing it runs a thin line.

How the situation is handled? Did they have a warrant to search his premises? If so did he open the door and let them in? Does anyone know these details? They had a right to ask him questions, he had a right to silence. How many people arguing this situation know the full details. Of course he would have felt stressed, that’s a human trait. Having a couple of PI’s turn up at your house is bound to mess your head up. But ‘if’ they treated him fairly, then nobody can argue against them doing the job they were paid to do. Did 2K or T2 over react? How do we know…

2 Likes
#91

I’m too but you have to understand that Submatto was the only light in the dark when people were totally annoyed with the 3 years of Randys “We have info soon”, his whole teasing about things with the number 3" etc. the new activity of the Borderlands Twitter after years of silence followed by nothing time and time again.

Remember the whole teasing is going on since 2016! The motion capture pic, the Battleborn Easter Egg, the GDC tech demo, the 2K fiscal year reports… not to mention that BL3 was apparantlly pushed back from a 2018 release because of FL4Ks pet ai.

#92

I just saw what got deleted/removed and hell, that is crazy. Sure, this, again, is hearsay, but the amount of videos that disappeared since yesterday is insane.

@DaRTH_FuRioN I fully understand why people don’t like leaks or the overflow of information as it can be tiring. And that’s why I always say that people should use social media with caution as it is hard to not trip over stuff that you didn’t want to know. When it comes to SupMatto himself, most of what he did seems like a classic leak from one inside source plus a bunch of stuff that got leaked otherwise that he just repackaged into watchable content. We obviously don’t know the details, but the timing of those 63 strikes seems really, really strange. Why weren’t there 70 strikes at once instead of just 7 the first time around and 63 after his statement? But, yeah, I’m speculating right now and try to interpret something into it.

#93

It seems like they’ve redoubled to punish him for causing them trouble. There was nothing in his videos at this point that wasn’t already published by every Borderlands-centric channel by now. So, it seems clear that this is just strong arming. Again, I think this is a bad move in terms of PR.

1 Like
#94

Personally i just don’t get it. There has been so much coverage of the game since the announcement, and lots of details provided by GBX and 2K giving us dates, videos, we even had people streaming the game!! So i just don’t understand why they had to keep on pushing it.

I will also say, i was ‘very’ surprised that he made that statement after talking to Lawyers. A public statement, none scripted. That was a bad move. If there is any legal battle going on, he should have made it short and sweet and not referring tot the situation at all.

But anyway, i’ll leave this thread to y’all. I’m just sit in a corner biting my arms off waiting launch day :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

2 Likes
#95

The thing is that I believe that they could have striked all those videos the first time around, but decided to not do it. But now they “suddenly” changed their minds.

@DaRTH_FuRioN it was scripted as he is reading off from his computer (look at the reflection of his glasses and where his eyes are looking). Also, his tone and choice of words are different. On leak-culture: Leaks always find a crowd like me, the ones that want to theorycraft as much and as early as possible. And the Superfans that just binge everything Borderlands. But that is not for everyone and neither are the risks. And it doesn’t need to be. Have a nice day!

1 Like
#96

Yes, because a week later he made that explanation video that caused them trouble, so they retaliated by killing his youtube channel. I mean, correlation doesn’t necessarily men causation, but it certainly does look like that’s what happened. We’re doing business with bad people, man. I suspect that there will be a certain percentage of gamers who won’t want to support them because of this. And that’s really on them. They want to make the case that SupMatto is the bad guy, but they’re kinda looking more and more like the bad guy here.

1 Like
#97

Exactly, except in the public eye it often does, which is why this is pretty much the worst marketing nightmare they could have brought upon themselves.

But, just on time: The Fl4k trailer and skill trees are out! Go check it out and have a breather from the darkness that is Take-Two’s business!

1 Like
#98

edit: I’m not sure why people are surprised there is outrage at a major corporation finding someone’s personal details and sending people to their house to intimidate them? Do (edit) people really think all 63 copyright strikes on his channel are valid? For these entitled corporations, copyright only works one way for them.

That said, there is more to this that we’ll likely never know unless there is a court filing.

#99

Like I said, with the right law, network and/or connection everyone can be found. The problem is more the way they did all of this. PI’s are bad enough, but neither illegal nor even a bad thing. Their job is to abuse the unprepared person’s stressed mind to get important info out of them before a lawyer gets involved. Mission accomplished I fear.

I can see all 63 copyright strikes being valid, but even if not, it will be enough to kill the channel. But the timing of that load of strikes seems suspicious. But we almost certainly won’t find out what is true and what isn’t. I find it more important to make this wave of strikes known, so that it gets even more coverage. Corporations can fight dirty if they want to, but that cannot stand without consequences. They can strike down 1 YouTuber, but I don’t think that they can handle a dozen or so channels with at least the size of SupMatto’s, much more for the most part.

2 Likes
#100

A post was split to a new topic: Leaker Trolling

#102

I know that there are some seriously ■■■■■■ up people working in investigation, so all that isn’t too surprising. We don’t know what people SupMatto and the GTA modder(s) had to deal with, which makes it hard to measure the weight of Take-Two’s actions. As I said, the intimidation is almost normal in that field, but intimidation as a word can be taken to extremes that go far beyond what anyone should have to endure for a video game. I know that far too well, as I made some enemies back in the day, that were everything but concerned with my well-being.

#103

Thank you! I’ve been waiting to see this. That’s exactly right.

This is something that they(2k) took a bit too far. I get the fact that money is involved. the gaming industry is now big money. With that kinda of power/greed you get these types of shenanigans. The tactics used I find deplorable and completely unethical.

3 Likes