The GameStop Exclusive ‘Borderlands 4’ ECHO-4 Bundle Does Not Come with a Copy of the Game. I Can’t Be the Only One Who Finds That Funny, Right?

I woke up this morning to news of the GameStop exclusive Borderlands 4 ECHO-4 Bundle. Why is the name stylized like that? Keep reading, bubbas. As I went down the list of content in the bundle, I saw the standard stuff. A map, a statue, some art, and a code card for… not the game. And that is where I stopped. The code card in this bundle is for Golden Keys. It’s a SHiFT Code Card. In-game content. But missing from this bundle is, you guessed it, the actual game.

the ‘borderlands 4’ bundle is not the first time this has happened, but that’s not the issue

I’m not gonna sit here and finger wag at Gearbox or 2K (at least the base game is $70). This has happened in other cases. EA has done it with Dragon Age: The Veilguard; Blizzard did it with Diablo 4. I do find it to be ridiculous, and I don’t agree with it as a practice, but I can see why it’s done. If all those collector’s items get hung up somewhere while shipping, you don’t end up waiting for the game. Cool. I still don’t like it, but that’s the small bone I’m willing to throw the publishers. Maybe it is done with an eye on the gamer. Maybe.

But who I am going to continue to look at funny is GameStop. You have one actual job: sell games. And yet, you’re selling something that doesn’t come with the game. Because you have no real interest in games or gaming. It’s bad enough that their constant pre-order badgering is annoying at best. Remember that GameStop credit card? I thought it was dead. Nope, still a thing. Gaming is a pretty expensive hobby. And it isn’t getting cheaper. Hooking people up to a credit card for that was nasty when you started it, and it’s even nastier now. And yet, this is still one of the largest game retailers in the country.

33 years of Game Informer — you shut that down. Damn near tried to erase it from the internet. Joke’s on you, they’re still alive. I don’t understand why GameStop is needed. There are awesome retro gaming stores out there, and there are still some mom-and-pop gaming stores in existence, too. Support that. Because the big name that should be for gaming has been showing you for years that it isn’t.