Borderlands 4 developers address community concerns about Take-Two's Terms of Service

Today, Borderlands 4 has finally been released. It’s already climbing up the concurrent player charts on Steam, and likely attracting just as many players across consoles, too. If you have any questions about multiplayer, we have the answers, and if you’re playing on PC and encountering a crash or black screen, there may be a solution. But, in the last hour, the developers behind Borderlands 4 have posted on Steam in response to community concerns over parent company Take-Two’s Terms of Service agreement.

Borderlands 4 developers respond to community concern over Terms of Service

The Steam post doesn’t appear to have been shared elsewhere at the time of writing, and they have not allowed comments on the post, making it difficult to gauge the community response so far. However, I have noticed some posts on Steam’s discussions page with users expressing concern and confusion that they will get banned if they use mods. The developers directly address this in their post, but it’s also not the clearest response, and will likely still leave some players with worries.

Borderlands 4 developers respond to community concerns.Source: Steam

Borderlands 4 developers respond to community concerns (cont.).Source: Steam

The headline is that “Take-Two does not permit abusive mods…” which some players worry is too vague to be trustworthy. In the body text, the developers do point out that “Take-Two generally does not seek to take action against mods that are single-player only, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property (IP) rights of its labels and third parties.” Which does make it seem better, but unfortunately, the use of the word “generally” does seem to give Take-Two the leeway to make exceptions.

This policy’s main goal is to “prohibit mods that allow users to gain an unfair advantage, negatively impact the ability of other users to enjoy the game as intended, or allow users to gain access to content that the user is not entitled to.” Since Borderlands 4 is a game you’ll either play single-player or cooperatively with friends, it’s hard to imagine a situation where this wouldn’t just police itself. However, this is a Take-Two policy, essentially handed down to all subsidiaries, so it’s not something the Borderlands developers specifically chose to include.

The other topic the team addresses is spyware. The post clarifies that “Take-Two does not use spyware in its games.” Evidently, this has worried some players, but I have yet to find a post anywhere specifically on this topic. Take-Two collects certain data from its users but outlines this in its Privacy Policy. They say “it allows us to better understand how players play games, and to personalize the user experience (like having usernames show up!)…” So, while this seems quite similar to most other large companies at this point, it’s good to be aware of what you’re signing up for.

Ultimately, this is not legal advice, and I am not a lawyer. The Borderlands developers say “maintaining transparency and confidence with the community here is always our goal…” but that doesn’t mean that Take-Two wouldn’t potentially ban you for using or creating a mod that they can argue goes against these Terms of Service. The vast majority of players will likely never encounter an issue with this, but it’s always good practice to be aware of what you agree to. You can read the Take-Two Terms of Service and Privacy Policy yourself to be extra careful.

Borderlands 4

September 11, 2025

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• Overview

• 2K Games
• Take 2 Interactive
• Gearbox
• Borderlands (franchise)