Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford is known for speaking his mind, and he seemed particularly annoyed when the news of Borderlands 2 broke last night. Eurogamer was given information from an unnamed source that the game was in development, with a major announcement coming soon. Pitchford called stories about Borderlands 2 "shoddy journalism" on his Twitter account. Here's the problem: the story was 100 percent true. When a marketing plan is in place, reporters defy it at their own peril.

"I can tell you that myself and everyone at Gearbox LOVES Borderlands and we have been absolutely thrilled at the reception it's gotten from our customers and the fact that it's sold over four million units now," Pitchford told Eurogamer in the past. "But we've only announced what we've announced. If we haven't announced it, it doesn't exist." Gearbox did not comment on this latest story

The report spread across the gaming blogs like wildfire, which seemed to annoy Mr. Pitchford. The cat was out of the bag: the game was in development, it was coming, and contrary to what developer bigwigs would have us believe, things certainly can exist before they're officially announced.

"I have long maintained that we will do more with Borderlands," Pitchford tweeted. "Shoddy journalism is not an announcement."

Less than a day later, the official announcement was made. The game is in development, and it will be released sometime in fiscal 2013, which begins in April 2012. In fact, every detail from the original Eurogamer report was accurate. The problem wasn't the journalism, it was the fact that the news of the game's existence was part of a larger marketing plan. "Eager gamers can learn more about Borderlands 2 right now by picking up the latest issue of Game Informer Magazine, which has the worldwide exclusive cover story on the title," Take-Two wrote in a press release. "Readers will find many game details inside the issue, including the first reveal of one of the several new character classes being introduced in Borderlands 2."

It's a problem when journalism happens

This sorry episode is indicative of a larger problem with our business: those that write about games are supposed to be part of a marketing program, and any attempt at breaking a story that isn't handed to an outlet is met with outright hostility. If you get a scoop about a game before an exclusive reveal at another publication, you're going to be called out for "shoddy journalism." Having a story before you're allowed to have it makes you a target.

We experienced this firsthand when we broke the news of Rock Band 3's keytar peripheral. After we ran the story we were contacted by the PR company handling the Harmonix account, and threatened with all sorts of nastiness if the story wasn't removed.

We held firm, because we knew the story was accurate, but what I was unprepared for was the anger from other writers who had signed nondisclosure agreements that prevented them from writing about the peripheral until the NDA expired. From their point of view I hadn't played fair, and in many cases outlets which had signed the NDA didn't pick up our story for fear of angering Harmonix. We had stepped out of the marketing plan for the game by running a scoop we had dug up ourselves, and boy, did we ever hear about it.

Game Informer will still have the first details of the game, and that will remain exclusive until the rest of the gaming press is granted access to the title, which will be playable at PAX Prime. Neither Game Informer nor Gearbox was hurt by the early news of the game's existence, but the power of a Game Informer cover and story can't be underestimated within the industry, and publishers are going to do everything they can to protect the marketing deals they've made with the magazine. If you threaten that relationship with honest-to-goodness reporting, apparently you're nothing but a shoddy journalist.

We've reached out to both Randy Pitchford and 2K Games, but have yet to receive a response at the time of publication.

Borderlands 2 is coming to the 360, PS3, and PC in fiscal 2013.

Update:The quotes in the Eurogamer story came from a previous interview about Borderlands 2. Eurogamer contacted Gearbox about their story before they ran it, and Gearbox has not responded. Our own post has been updated.