The long awaited PC version of Borderlands has hit the digital avenues of Steam… if you’re in the US. Unfortunately for UK and AU users, the release date was marked incorrectly until the very last hour.

Thus, instead of ticking over to an unlocked game, the release date simply changed to the 30th of October, 3 days away. Europeans and Australians have long been used to being used and abused, but this was a first in the realm of digital downloads.

Honestly, this is a pretty ridiculous turn of events. That no-one noticed the date was “incorrect” for over a month just smells like someone covering up some wasted time. But what really irritates me is that the US version of Borderlands would be identical to the US or UK version, since it doesn’t require any localisation or language changes. Not only that, but punters paid US dollars to a US company, effectively importing the game before being stunted.

It’s a shame really, because all this will do is fuel downloads of pirated copies so people can fill the gap to play with their friends. There is no reason why Steam cannot unlock it now, but publisher obligations are likely to be the cause. What a mess.