The team behind Borderlands 3 learned about how one of their fans is terminally ill, and they allowed him to play an early build of the game, along with creating his gun for other players to use when the game launches.
Gearbox Software wanted to honor a particular fan during their busy development for their next game, Borderlands 3. The fan is Trevor Eastman, a 26-year-old who got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer of the liver, esophagus, and stomach with doctors only giving him another year.
Eastman took to Reddit to share his story with other Borderlands 3 fans and wanted to see if the community members could assist him in contacting the game’s development team with his situation. It took less than a month for the developers to hear about it and contact him.
Gearbox invited Eastman to spend some time in their studio. The team allowed him to try an early build of the game and play it for four hours. After he finished, they gave him the chance of a lifetime to create a unique gun in the game to mark his legacy in their next, epic installment.
Eastman created a gun called Compressing Trevanator. It’s a specialized shotgun that switches from cryo to fire damage and is going to be manufactured by Maliwan, one of the gun companies featured in the game. We got a brief glimpse of the weapon in this Twitter post shared by SupMatto.
That’s a legacy being cemented. I don’t give a shit what you think about Gearbox Software…you cannot deny the passion and the proof that they listen and watch the community. Trevor got to name a gun and give it it’s red text. Fucking awesome. Amazing. #Borderlands3 pic.twitter.com/UmxJhZvN8m
— SupMatto (@SupMatto) June 3, 2019
The Compressing Trevantor is going to be available in the game when it launches on September 13. Borderlands 3 hits the market for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC all on the same date. It’s first going to come to the Epic Games Store as an exclusive, until April 2020 when it’ll be available on Steam.
