In the last week, following the ESA’s leak of personal information of several YouTubers, Journalists, and other media and industry professionals with press badges, I had some concern with whom could get hold of said information. Last Friday and Saturday I had begun writing a piece with an opening about some journalists now having to live in fear of someone with a gun attacking them, the next day two mass shootings happened. To say the very least, my concerns about someone else’s personal safety are valid. This doesn’t mention the idea of someone breaking into someone’s home to be shot for doing so.

This being said, several months ago a YouTuber and Twitch streamer “SupMatto” leaked something about Borderlands 3. SupMatto himself has made several (hundred) videos on Borderlands, as he is a fan. As any excited fan would be, they would like to share their excitement about something no matter how big or small said thing happens to be. What SupMatto was leaking was promotional material and unannounced information for the upcoming release, not yet revealed by Take-Two Interactive. Since then SupMatto has had some difficulties.

In a video posted on SupMatto’s YouTube channel, he states, “On Thursday, July 25th, private investigators showed up to my home, trespassed on my private property, and questioned me.” Going on to state, “I was very tense, as many of you could imagine, having two people in suits you don’t know turn up to your home. As lawyers, law enforcement, and family have said: I probably shouldn’t have [spoken] to them, but I did because I don’t feel I have anything to hide.” From here he states they spoke for 30-40 minutes discussing the Livestream that was on his channel.

However, during this conversation, the two men in suits stated they were from Take-Two Interactive. After SupMatto researched these two men on LinkedIn after the fact, he soon found out these were private investigators hired by Take-Two. Take-Two, the parent company of 2K games, serves as the publisher and parent company for many large games, including Grand Theft Auto 5 and Rockstar Games, Visual Concepts and WWE 2K20, and of course, publisher for Gearbox’s Borderlands 3.

In a statement to IGN, a 2K representative has said: “Take-Two and 2K take the security and confidentiality of trade secrets very seriously. 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.” Thus admitting to sending said investigators, and claiming impunity to do so.

In the video by SupMatto (Warning: Strong language), he claims, “It’s not some crafty workaround,” continuing with, “On April 29th the official Borderlands YouTube channel posted the reveal of the Twitch extension leading into the gameplay reveal […] and the name of the testing accounts were exposed in that video […] This wasn’t found by me.” This is followed by claims by SupMatto that said Twitch accounts were public. However, 2K’s representatives believe it was otherwise.

In speculation, it is believed this could have been a security flaw on Twitch, resulting in someone being able to data-mine for said information. While it is also believed that SupMatto may be getting his information from a third-party, possibly within Take-Two/2K. This second theory could mean that there is a break of NDAs and other agreements in place to keep parts of the game a secret for an interval.

Nonetheless, the 2K representative that spoke with IGN states, “The information he’s sharing about the situation is incomplete, and in some cases untrue.” They then went on to state, “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.” Given we do not know what this representative is stating is illegal, we have to assume this is holding the suspicion that SupMatto data-mined the information himself.

However, an IGN source claims that SupMatto previously listed that he will give you further Borderlands 3 leaks for a $5 membership to his channel. These leaks would be provided through a Discord server, this is also spoken about in the video but it has since been taken down. SupMatto claims that the server was taken down soon after the investigators left his home, the email SupMatto received states: “Your account was involved in selling, promoting, or distributing cheats, hacks, or cracked accounts.” It is not believed that this is Take-Two.

Take-Two have since stated, “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.” Though it is believed that Take-Two will not be taking legal action against SupMatto. It is, however, believed that this SupMatto incident is part of a larger on-going investigation into internal leaks inside Take-Two.

I will, however, take these final moments to state that if these private investigators did as SupMatto said, and were trespassing, this could have been a larger issue. In April this year, rapper Bum B shot an intruder who was armed looking to rob the rapper’s Houston home. The intruder, DeMonte Jackson, later turned up to a hospital and was later charged with two felony counts of aggravated robbery with a weapon and one count of burglary. If SupMatto’s claims are true and had he owned a gun, this story could be very different. This also highlights the issues with the ESA leaks.

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