Borderlands 3 publishers 2K Games have admitted they despatched non-public investigators to a YouTuber’s house for a pleasant chat. 2K say it’s a part of a ten-month investigation into YouTuber “SupMatto” for leaking “confidential information” and “infringing [their] copyright” by sharing unannounced particulars about Gearbox’s FPS-RPG.
To be clear: SupMatto isn’t accused of leaking the precise game for individuals to play, solely screenshots and snippets of data not but revealed by the game’s multimillion-dollar advertising marketing campaign. That certainly deserves the not-remotely-intimidating tactic of sending employed goons to his door.
For a number of years, SupMatto has made squillions of movies about Borderlands weapons, characters, tales, updates, easter eggs, and so forth. That’s the type of stuff 2K should be thrilled to have followers making, holding the hype going between games. It could be very handy for publishers when followers make this type of video totally free. He’s additionally dabbled in movies about leaked Borderlands three data, wee particulars about characters and issues from sometimes-mysterious sources that 2K’s costly advertising marketing campaign had not but revealed. 2K are much less pleased with that.
“On Thursday July 25th, private investigators showed up to my home, trespassed on my private property, and questioned me,” SupMatto mentioned in a video this week, explaining why his channel had fallen quiet. “I was very tense, as many of you could imagine, having two people in suits you don’t know turn up to your home.”
SupMatto estimates they talked for 30-40 minutes. “They questioned me about various things relating to my channel, the livestream that was discussed on my channel [. . . ], and they told me they were from Take-Two Interactive,” he mentioned.
To which Take-Two and 2K have formally responded, yep, sounds about proper.
“Take-Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously,” they told IGN. “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.”
They do declare that “the information he’s sharing about the situation is incomplete, and in some cases untrue,” however they don’t dispute the goons.
SupMatto and 2K do disagree on how he got here by a few of his data, thumbnail previews confirmed the aforementioned “gameplay reveal” livestream earlier than its announcement. SupMatto says the pictures had been publicly seen on Twitch with just a little legwork, 2K say they had been non-public and located with a safety exploit. That’s largely secondary to the truth that 2K had already been investigating him for his different movies and, y’know, despatched employed goons to his door over thumbnails for a advertising livestream.
“Not only were many of his actions illegal, but they were negatively impacting the experience of other content creators and our fans in anticipation for the game,” Take-Two say.
Gosh, are you able to think about? Illegal actions are dangerous sufficient, however negatively impacting the expertise of content material creators too? Prison can be inadequate: put him in house jail.
SupMatto claims that 2K issued copyright strikes towards seven of his YouTube movies. That would’ve been sufficient for YouTube to close down his complete channel, had six of them not quickly been revoked. These movies, I remind you, simply talked about leaked data like character talent bushes or official advertising occasions.
He additionally notes that, shortly after the goons left, his channel’s Discord server was shut down for being “involved in selling, promoting, or distributing cheats, hacks, or cracked accounts.” IGN say that his YouTube had beforehand marketed entry to a non-public Discord room with additional Borderlands three leaked data in the event that they subscribed to his channel for $5/month. If true, that was fairly chuffing silly of him however nonetheless wouldn’t justify this.
In a exceptional try to show this again on SupMatto and different individuals feeding followers the data they evidently crave, 2K say their crackdown on leaks is for the followers.
“We will take the necessary actions to defend against leaks and infringement of our intellectual property that not only potentially impact our business and partners, but more importantly may negatively impact the experiences of our fans and customers,” they mentioned.
Yeah yeah, in fact they do wish to shield their enterprise, however most of all they wish to shield followers from the horrors of unauthorised advertising.
IGN say that, as they perceive it, 2K are usually not pursuing authorized motion towards SupMatto. Presumably 2K are awaiting the institution of house court docket so he may be adequately tried for his crimes towards content material creators.
