Hoo boy, here we go.
As you may be aware by now, while all the hype for Borderlands 3 is in full gear due to some press hands on as well as a public-facing reveal event, we couldn?t get through the day without a little drama. Chandler covers what happened and why in his Daily Reaction column, but I wanted to get into the issue a bit from the journalistic perspective. As an official journalism degree-holder, it?s important for me to use it sometimes use my appreciation of certain concepts to defend the profession when the opportunity arises. In this case, we?re talking about semantics, specifically why Game Informer needed to cover the matter in the first place. Pitchford?s understandable frustration over his word choice versus what he actually meant is unfortunate, but not Game Informer?s problem.
This situation in particular is a little weird, and does show some issues with how information is spread from media outlets to readers. Pitchford?s issue isn?t actually with Game Informer?s article on its own. The piece, written by associate editor Elise Favis, is about as straightforward as it gets. The headline is ?Borderlands 3 Won?t Have Loot Boxes,? the story starts with Pitchford?s ?microtransactions? quote and goes on to clarify what is actually happening with Borderlands 3.

Despite Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford?s comment about ?no microtransactions? in Borderlands 3 during today?s livestream, we?ve been told cosmetic items are still purchasable. https://t.co/DnQpHJVpt5 pic...