[Update, May 18, 12:03pm ET: Ars received the following response via a representative of publisher 2K Games: "We are working closely with Epic and have temporarily removed Borderlands 3 from their storefront. We look forward to the game being back on the Epic Games store soon. Games bought during their Mega Sale will be honored at that price."]

[Update, May 18, 8:28am ET: Gearbox's Borderlands 3 is no longer available for pre-order on the Epic Games Store. The game was previously available for as low as $49.99 during the sale (before Epic's additional $10 off for all games over $14.99), down from its initial starting price of $59.99.

The Epic Games Store page for the game now simply lists a "Coming Soon" message where the pre-order links used to be. The "PC Digital" platform option has also been removed from the pre-order page on the official Borderlands webpage.

Epic and Gearbox representatives were not immediately available to comment on the pre-order pause for the Epic Games Store exclusive. But Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford appears to have deleted a recent tweet that read "Save $10 on Borderlands 3! Also works if you have already pre-ordered, I'm told. Epic sure wants to earn your trust."]

Original Story (May 17)

Epic's first "Mega Sale," launched yesterday , is causing some pricing and availability hiccups for a few publishers. As Kotaku lays out , a couple of games in the store's small catalog seem to have removed themselves from the platform rather than participate in the temporary price reductions.

Paradox Interactive's Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 and Klei Entertainment's Oxygen Not Included are no longer available on the Epic Games Store as of this writing. Bloodlines 2 was actually removed shortly after being listed at a reduced sale price, a state of affairs that Epic's Sergei Galyonkin said happened because Paradox was unaware of the "sale mechanism."

"If a developer or publisher chooses to not participate in our sales, we will honor that decision," an Epic representative told Kotaku. "Paradox Interactive has chosen to not participate in the Epic Mega Sale and the game has been temporarily removed from sale. If you’ve purchased Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 during the period when the discount did apply at the time of check out, Epic will honor that price."

Paradox also noted in a statement that the game will "return to the store soon," presumably after the sale is complete.

Epic's Mega Sale, which offers a reduced price for every game currently available on the platform, also includes an additional $10 discount for games prices $14.99 and over, covered by Epic itself . But those steep discounts can cause an awkward price discrepancy for publishers that also offer their games on Steam, where Valve's larger revenue cut can create a different value proposition . Some publishers also might be wary of effectively devaluing a new release by offering such a large price reduction so soon after launch.

Meanwhile, the Epic Mega Sale also caused some brief pricing confusion for Supergiant's hack-and-slash title Hades. After the game was briefly listed at $6.99, its sale price was reset to $14.99. The game's base price, however, was listed at $24.99, up from its original listing of $19.99. Supergiant later reset both the base and sale prices to $19.99 and apologized for raising the base price without advance warning.