We won't beat around the bush here: from the minute it was revealed we found it hard to care about Battleborn - Gearbox's MOBA-shooter thing with the divisive art style. Turns out that we weren't the only ones who struggled to give a **** either, as the game flopped pretty darn hard upon release. Last we heard, the player base is essentially non-existent.
"While the game launched to solid reviews, its performance in the market has been below our expectations," stated Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick during the publisher's most recent financial call. However, despite its failure to have any impact on the market, Zelnick said that the company's not about to give up on the title: "We think there remains an opportunity to grow the audience for this unique experience over time, and 2K will continue to drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending on the title through add-on content and virtual currency."
Needless to say, interesting times lie ahead for Battleborn. In case you haven't heard, Take-Two has found relative success with Evolve (remember that?) after basically re-releasing the game as a free-to-play title on PC, so the same thing may eventually happen with Gearbox's latest. At least the publisher has options, we suppose.
Have you played Battleborn? Do you still play it, or did you shelve it long ago? Give us some obnoxious comedy in the comments section below.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 35
SURPRISE!
I don't think anybody is sat thinking, "Well, I didn't see this coming."
All I'm reading is "this game did so bad that we have to resort to heavy microtransactions and DLC"
I never liked take-two much before, but with how they handled Battleborn, it's going to be nothing but bargain bin food for me.
This is a decent game but the timing of release was bad.
I honestly feel sad for Gearbox. If the game had met its original planned release, it wouldn't have competed directly with Overwatch and it probably would have done great.
Didn't think it was much different to Overwatch, okay less shooting but Overwatch is overhyped crap.
Gearbox have a reputation so that probably didn't help matters. Promise one thing then deliver something else. I've heard the performance for this game is pretty poor. No surprises there.
F2P or RIP
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Maybe overhyped, but not crap!
Played Battleborn at sale price, and grinding levels for about two weeks. It was a so-so experience, made me think I should have bought different game.
It's actually a pretty good game in my opinion. The only thing really holding it back is the lack of maps for pvp and lack of campaign missions to play with friends. The art style took a little getting used to I will admit but it grew on me and the diversity of the characters makes the repetition of the maps a lot more bearable.
It's not something to play alone though, this game is definitely something to enjoy with friends.
I feel that the timing of release was just terrible though and is a major contributing factor to the failure of the game so far but if they reinvent it, maybe people will play it and realise it is pretty good fun when you get past the flaws.
As for the divisive style of humour, well I enjoy it. Mostly because too may shooters are serious these days so playing something idiotic can be a refreshing change.
Overwatch ftw
@BertoFlyingFox Well, they're obviously going to make it free-to-play, so of course they'll double down on microtransactions.
Good. I thought it looked abysmal from the word go.
@sketchturner @dryrain Exactly that is what hurt it the most. I know they are different kinda of games but look wise the do look similar. A handfull of colorful characters on teams in a shooter. Gearbox should have advertised it more showing how it's different then Overwatch and that may of helped it and maybe showed more of the humor in advertisement.
Most people.I talk to about this game they usually say that its an Overwatch clone which I tell them that it isn't. Either that or they tell me yeah I was going to get it but Overwatch was releasing at the same time and I didn't need two of the same game.
I played it and loved it. Sad to see it doing so poorly choosing to launch on the same month as Overwatch was pretty much suicide.
"While the game launched to solid reviews"
lol, that's debatable. When your game scores 68 on Metacritic it's a tough sell when there's so many "better" games out there...
Edit - it must have flopped bad. Can be bought for £12 new on Amazon atm!
Should have just made Borderlands 3.
MP style games like these are just huge risks for publishers. If something gets good word of mouth and is released at the right moment then it has a good chance of making cash. If not, it is dead and will have no legs.
Normally, even if a SP game doesn't sell well, there is the chance of leveraging revenue over a period of time but people just won't buy a MP if there isn't a community.
Though I agree - releasing moments before a similar (ish) looking game from Blizzard was rather foolhardy.
Shame to see articles still bashing this game, it's actually pretty fun, nothing like OW besides they both have shooters....battleborn also has melee guys AND PvE play, something that greatly increased its longevity. I was one of those on the OW hype train but after actually owning and playing both, I honestly have to say I enjoy Battleborn way more, 93 hours in and still loving it, especially since it was in humble bundle and got it on the cheap! So for those who bash it but haven't even played it, try it out before you jump on the anti-hype train!
@dryrain I agree.
I also think they should have added more campaigns. Although I think that about most Multi-player FPS type games. Where is my Time-Splitters?
@Dodoo Its £15 retail too. I even passed on that a couple of days ago.
Its crazy how overwatch caught on but BB didn't, most people seem to be split on which is better after playing both so maybe its the Blizzard mind control magic they often employ.
@themcnoisy For one thing Blizzard didn't a better job promoting Overwatch then Gearbox did with Battleborne.
Overwatch & Battleborn are two total different games, Gearbox didn't help Battleborn either trying to pass it off as something other then a MOBA.
@themcnoisy Yeah it's retail I meant. £12.73 at time of writing!
@Dodoo yeah sorry man, I meant I've seen it in highstreet shops for £15. No idea why I used retail as the defining word.
Just stick to your maymaylands games gearbox.
@sketchturner
I don't, not after the Colonial Marines debacle.
@themcnoisy Gotcha!
Hardly surprising given the justifiably poor reception. They also had the disadvantage that Overwatch released to great reviews. Still, these devs must know they're games are substandard when they release them. Think they should've sold it at £20 initially to try n boost sales in at least get it into as many homes as possible. Really does highlight the importance of playtesting/quality control. It's an awful lot of effort, time and money to waste on a poor product. Pretty Pointless!
I read articles that Gearbox was "still committed to DLC". I love how DLC discussion is the norm these days
@Tasuki It is nothing like overwatch it has more modes. And Singleplayer which can not be played offline. The leveling is a chore, cant switch characters during a match, free IOS/Andriod app with microtransactions, does not look to great, is not working stable. The beta worked better then the actual game....
@Dashyu Sorry mate you have melee characters in overwatch. And the game is just substandard bought it day one. The leveling is a chore, cant switch characters during a match, free IOS/Andriod app with microtransactions, does not look to great just ok, itis not working stable. The beta worked better then the actual game....
@Grawlog I did not want to buy Overwatch but i tried the Beta and i loved. The game looks and plays great. If you make good games they deserve to sell well. For me it has nothing to do with who made but the high standards and i will not buy a game solely on a review.
@Utena-mobile I dont hate the graphics it just is not as good as Overwatch and less stable it even drops a lot below 30 FPS on some maps. I loved the Beta from Battleborn but when i got the real game i found it less then Beta. I like the humor but this game should have had been delayed and be shined up (dont know the right term for it). The game would have been better and would not have to compete against Overwatch sounds like a double win.
@Flaming_Kaiser I know they are nothing alike, but to most Gearbox did a poor job of showing just that so alot of people dismissed it. Also it didnt help being launched a few weeks earlier.
Battleborn should have been stillborn
F2P is the only chance for this game
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...