Borderlands shortages reported, PS3 fix incoming

Having a game sell out is many a publisher's dream. However, higher-than-expected demand for the action role-playing game Borderlands is giving 2K Games a headache, according to the game's developer, Gearbox Software.

"Copies of the Xbox 360 Borderlands SKU have run out in a few regions, especially the East Coast," a rep told GameSpot following reports of sellouts. "We are aware of this and are working with production and distribution at ramping up to catch up with demand. There will be more copies of Borderlands available on shelves as early as Thursday or Friday at many retailers."

While Borderlands may be hard to find on the East Coast, it is in ample supply on the Western edge of the continent. Calls placed to several San Francisco Bay Area retailers found multiple copies in stock, particularly the PlayStation 3 version. (The game ships for the PC next week.) This may be in part because of lower marks it received from critics (compared to the Xbox 360 version) due to "broken" PS3 friends lists used by the game's multiplayer modes, which include four-person campaign co-op.

Luckily for PS3 owners, Gearbox is now aware of the matter and taking action. "We've identified the problem and are working on a fix," said software engineer Scott Velasquez on the official Gearbox forums. "We'll find out very soon if the issue exists for the PS3 International versions of the Borderlands. If it does, we'll hopefully have a fix implemented before it affects those customers."

Though he did not specify the reason behind the "friends interface issue," Velasquez did offer an explanation as to why the problem wasn't caught prelaunch. "Believe it or not, the friends feature was heavily tested by Gearbox and 2K," said the engineer. "However, this particular issue we found could have never manifested itself in our or 2K's test environments."