A Sad Death - The Tragedy of Battleborn

[00:15] The release of Borderlands in 2009 marked the  first step towards Gearbox Software cementing   itself as a master of developing hybrid  experiences, games capable of artfully   blending together otherwise disparate genres.  For the cel-shaded, vault-hunting romp,  

[00:30] such a blend consisted primarily of first-person  shooter mechanics and elements consistent with   role-playing games. Borderlands went on  to enjoy success beyond Gearbox and its   publishing partner’s wildest imaginations. It made  sense, then, that the studio similarly combined  

[00:46] genres when trying to break ground in the hero  shooter space with a brand-new IP, Battleborn.  A fast-paced shooter comprised of a story campaign  and competitive multiplayer modes, Battleborn   checked several boxes to become equal parts  MOBA, first-person shooter, and action-RPG. But  

[01:03] in striving to cover a wide gamut of experiences  in one, the hero-based FPS title lacked focus. Its   immediate competition, Blizzard Entertainment’s  Overwatch, suffered from no such lack of   discipline, an argument Gearbox President Randy  Pitchford readily acknowledged when dissecting why  

[01:19] Blizzard’s endeavor overshadowed that of his team. Pitchford would argue that Battleborn earned   the label of failure only because of misguided  Overwatch comparisons. To the studio executive,   Gearbox’s ambitious new property could have  held its own just fine, yet unfavorable  

[01:35] circumstances—namely its launch three weeks  before Overwatch—robbed it of any real chance   of doing as much. Regardless, steep discounts,  a dismal player retention rate, and reports of a  

[01:47] last-ditch effort to explore free-to-play options  followed Battleborn like a plague within months of   its debut. Any attempts at driving engagement  were met with disinterest, resulting in an   unfortunate but predictably quick demise. This is the tragedy of Battleborn.

[04:01] There exists a clear throughline between Randy  Pitchford’s connection to first-person shooters   and RPGs and the creation of Borderlands, a  connection that later drove Gearbox’s roundabout   conception of Battleborn. According to statements  the executive made in a Glixel interview, it all  

[04:17] dated back to the realization that the depth and  subtly of 3D action shooters like Duke Nukem 3D   could pair well with the “long-range loop” endemic  to roguelike and RPG experiences such as Diablo. 

[04:29] Though Pitchford and Company’s industry ascent  came courtesy of shooters, there was always an   appreciation for how the RPG loop revolved around  character progression. The team figured that type   of layered structure needn’t be mutually exclusive  with the short-term, visceral joy of moving and  

[04:44] shooting in an FPS. Marrying these two disparate  parts breathed life into Borderlands. But,   strangely, Brothers in Arms—Gearbox’s first  original IP—laid the foundation upon which   the developers eventually built Battleborn. Ubisoft’s E3 2011 press event featured a surprise  

[05:01] announcement of Brothers in Arms: Furious Four.  Instead of the franchise’s familiar and grounded   tone, the Furious Four teaser depicted an  Inglourious Basterds-esque veneer that many   fans of the beloved shooter series quickly  lambasted. A Senior Producer at Ubisoft at  

[05:16] the time, Nourredine Abboud, told Kotaku in  2011 that the Tarantino-inspired approached   stemmed from the publisher and developer’s  uncertainty about where to evolve Brothers   in Arms. Considering that starting point and the  ill-received E3 reveal, Gearbox knew returning  

[05:31] to the drawing board was the best path forward. Approximately one year later, the studio informed   a PAX Prime audience that Furious Four had been  uncoupled from the Brothers in Arms name, meaning   the Texas-based outfit would create another  new first-person shooter IP. Several rounds of  

[05:48] iteration turned the overly stylish Brothers in  Arms project into something entirely different,   a hybrid that moved even further than Borderlands  from the norms long-established in the FPS genre.  Those norms were more or less set in stone  during the seventh-console generation,  

[06:02] Pitchford explained. Selling FPS titles to  consumers typically focused on the abilities   of a single hero; BioShock, for instance, placed  an emphasis on the player character wielding   standard weapons in one hand and special  powers in the opposite. Since so much of  

[06:16] the industry had mastered the art of designing a  single playable hero, Gearbox surmised the next   logical step rested in letting users choose from  several different character types in one game.   Putting those characters and their respective  skills on a wide spectrum, then pitting players  

[06:31] against one another in online matches served as  the cornerstone of what Battleborn’s Creative   Director Randy Varnell called a “hero game”  in Game Informer’s August 2014 cover story[a].  Because the game was created in somewhat of  a vacuum, void of any knowledge regarding  

[06:46] Blizzard’s plans for Overwatch, the Battleborn  developers felt their hero shooter idea would   prove as revolutionary as blending together FPS  and role-playing mechanics for Borderlands. All   in all, the concept seemed a good bet, considering  how easily audiences were drawn to Borderlands’s  

[07:01] cast of playable Vault Hunters. The success of  MOBAs constituted another motivating factor behind   Furious Four’s evolution into Battleborn. Drafting  an interesting concept present but one challenge   in the grand scheme of things, though. The real  test expressed itself through the creation of fun  

[07:18] systems and a compelling game world that would  hopefully attract users and keep them invested.  

[07:42] Battleborn boasted more of a serious tone in its  embryonic phase; Varnell said the goofier bent   spawned over the course of development since the  creative crew struggled with divesting from what   had become its signature humor. Thus, colorful  insults and one-liners about the love of battle  

[07:58] fueled much of the banter between characters.  But the tonal shift had no bearing on the   game’s cataclysmic premise, which revolved around  numerous factions battling for control of Solus,   the last star and only remaining energy source in  the universe. The factions shared a common enemy  

[08:15] in The Varelsi, the dark force responsible for  destroying every other solar body; as the warring   groups fought amongst themselves, the threat  of the enigmatic force continuously mounted.  Gearbox tied it all together with a five-player  story campaign and multiplayer matches,  

[08:31] both of which heavily featured the villainous  Varelsi. Despite tone changes during production,   the studio approached the storytelling  seriously, with the factions especially   coming to life courtesy of inspiration  from Game of Thrones. That George R.R.  

[08:46] Martin’s characters were neither unilaterally  good nor bad counted as one such influence.  The motivations of Game of Thrones’s factions  proved integral to Battleborn’s creation as well;   some groups regularly feuded over personal  reasons, others for resource-related purposes.  

[09:02] Either way, all ignored the “big threat up  North” looming over the realm. From that thread,   Gearbox imagined a situation wherein the  rival forces in Game of Thrones would have   to lay aside their differences and focus their  collective energies on eliminating the common foe.  

[09:18] Varnell told Game Informer these reflections on  the popular TV show and book series represented   the “great inspiration” for Battleborn. Meanwhile,  Star Wars, various JPRGs, and Japanese anime  

[09:30] helped lay the foundations[b] for the identity  of each in-game faction and character—barring   the musclebound commando named Montana who’d  previously appeared in the Furious Four teaser.  Given its pedigree, Gearbox understood the  ins and outs of story and character would mean  

[09:45] little without fun gameplay. The studio leaned  on the hero game motif as a result, specifically   prioritizing a diverse cast of characters and  RPG gameplay loops. Battleborn’s playable heroes  

[09:57] targeted all types of playstyles; while some  wielded rifles or Gatling guns, others utilized   magic arrows or telekinetic swords. Character  designs similarly explored a range of aesthetics,   with the shooter playing host to Sith-like  space samurai and bipedal mushroom people. 

[10:13] In addition to constructing a cast reminiscent of  popular MOBAs, developers also closely examined   how the genre implemented progression systems.  Gearbox particularly wanted to ensure players   could always team up with their friends regardless  of each person’s respective level; Battleborn,  

[10:30] thus, received a speedy leveling system that  reset after every match. Since simplicity and   replayablity reigned supreme when it came to  gameplay, the studio further tackled issues   that had long plagued the likes of Call of Duty. Newcomers to Activision’s annual Call of Duty  

[10:46] releases often struggled when competing against  veterans of the franchise. Pitchford claimed   the new hero shooter would combat the problem by  employing the concept of “layering the competitive   game on top of the player-versus-environment  game.” Enemy NPCs were also implemented for  

[11:00] less-experienced users. Needless to say,  Gearbox aimed to appease those well-versed   in first-person shooters and non. The end  result ultimately wouldn’t go as planned.

[11:27] In the Game  

[11:47] Informer issue that accompanied Battleborn’s  reveal, Randy Pitchford boasted that “by the   time it ships, the amount of effort that’s  gone into Battleborn will be greater than   the first 10 years of Gearbox’s existence all  added together.” The studio President insisted  

[12:02] it was their most ambitious project, with more  staffers and “mindshare” dedicated to it than   any previous endeavor. After its rollercoaster  of a time during the seventh-console generation,   which included victories such as Borderlands 1 and  2 and losses like Duke Nukem Forever and Aliens:  

[12:19] Colonia Marines, Gearbox needed  another win. The team and its   publishing partners at 2K Games seemed  to believe Battleborn would deliver.  It arguably had the look of a winner, thanks in no  small part to the striking 2D visuals produced by  

[12:35] Art Director Scott Kester, Art Producer Sarah  Rosa, and Effects Director Michel Gange, the   latter of whom had an impressive resume spanning  The Iron Giant and Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  

[12:47] Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine about  the competitive shooter’s artistic approach,   Rosa said marrying Western CGI, specifically the  polish of Pixar films, with Japanese animation   helped capture a “graphic action-y feel,” which  brought flair to the environmental effects and  

[13:03] special abilities. Not unlike the gameplay  and narrative, Battleborn’s art direction   also borrowed from a trove of influences—fighting  games, MOBAs, and RPGs, and movies included—all  

[13:15] amounted to an ill-fated adventure that  tried being everything for everyone.  Announced for a 2016 release on PC, PS4, and  Xbox One, the hero shooter originally bore a   February due date. 2K later delayed it to May 3rd  of that year, a business decision the publisher  

[13:32] could not have predicted would eventually be  considered unwise. In March 2016, Blizzard   Entertainment revealed plans to launch its own  hero shooter, Overwatch, on May 24th—three weeks  

[13:44] after Battleborn’s scheduled debut. Such news  spelled trouble for the new Gearbox IP, and Randy   Pitchford and crew instantly recognized as much. In a post-launch interview with Glixel,   Pitchford admitted fear gripped the Gearbox  offices when Blizzard unveiled the Overwatch  

[14:00] date. Battleborn’s release had already been  set in stone for several months, so a second   delay wasn’t optional. Pitchford said when  discussing the matter with 2K’s parent company,   Take-Two Interactive, he emphasized that Overwatch  publisher Activision would “outspend” them with  

[14:16] sheer “brute force.” Simply put, there was nothing  anyone could do on Battleborn’s side of the fence.   Shipping a good game possible and hoping for  the best constituted the attitude going forward. 

[14:28] Before its wider release, Gearbox and 2K hosted  a beta open to the public. The open beta period   lasted for 10 days in April 2016; impressions from  outlets and players said more or less the same  

[14:40] thing—Battleborn played just fine, not bad but it  offered nothing particularly special, either. Many   believed it lacked direction, reducing the  game to jack of all trades, master of none. 

[14:52] Of course, the shooter launched to similar  criticism, earning middling review scores[c]   and little in the way of fanfare. This didn’t  necessarily translate to poor sales out of the   been “tracking just ahead” of Borderlands 1 in  terms of sales. Detailed data would be kept under  

[15:09] wraps for quite some time either way; and things  especially began looking gloomy once Overwatch hit   stores, dominating market share and mindshare. Battleborn received a 40 percent discount on  

[15:21] Steam by the end of its launch month. But the  steep price reduction hardly impacted the player   base on PC, evidenced by Steam Charts showing  a drastic decline in active users. In July,   the number of players dropped as low as 600,  a substantial shift from the approximately  

[15:36] 12,000 who boarded the trip to Solus on day  one. Some attributed the rapid collapse to   the introduction of microtransactions and  Premium Currency, with Gearbox’s promises   of continuing to deploy free content having  no effect on the game’s potential growth. 

[15:51] Take-Two confirmed the suspected commercial  shortcomings in an August 2016 financial report,   as CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed that Battleborn  sold below expectations. The executive insisted  

[16:03] the shooter could still cultivate an audience,  reiterating 2K’s intention of supporting it long   term. Gearbox’s previous announcement of five free  playable heroes and a Season Pass packing five DLC   add-ons outlined the immediate post-launch plans;  yet, the future beyond these prearranged releases  

[16:19] looked murky at best. As such, after  only a handful of months on the market,   reports of a free-to-play version started  hinting at Battleborn’s last bastion of hope.

[16:53] Based on sources familiar with Battleborn’s  production, Kotaku wrote a report in September   2016 that alleged developers were priming the  underperforming shooter for a free-to-play   release. Reportedly, such a launch had already  suffered two delays. The publication’s sources  

[17:09] 2K Games supposedly dismissed the idea outright,  wanting to ship a full-priced, $60 package.  calling the story false in a post on his  personal Twitter account. In a subsequent tweet,  

[17:28] the Gearbox President teased an unannounced “trial  version” of Battleborn, purposefully avoiding   the free-to-play nomenclature. Vague naming  conventions aside, the hero shooter essentially   embraced the free-to-play route with a so-called  “free trial” iteration in June 2017. It included  

[17:45] unlimited access to every competitive multiplayer  mode, along with a rotating cast of six playable   characters. Fans who previously purchased the  title were promoted as Founders, thereby gaining   access to several pieces of free content meant  to compensate them for being early adopters. 

[18:00] In the months leading up to the free-to-play  rollout, Pitchford gave interviews wherein   he staunchly defended Battleborn’s market  performance. Its perceived failure merely   constituted a matter of perception, based  wholly on the impossible-to-avoid comparisons  

[18:14] to Overwatch. The executive divulged in  January 2017 that Battleborn had amassed   three and a half million users up until  that point. He lamented that, as far as   the general consensus was concerned, these numbers  relative to Overwatch’s success equaled failure;  

[18:30] by comparison the Blizzard-created hero shooter  hosted upwards of 25 million registered users   around the same time. But if Battleborn had  landed without direct competition looming,   Pitchford maintained it would’ve  been deemed a success, even if  

[18:44] Still, the outspoken industry veteran had no  trouble acknowledging Battleborn’s weaknesses   when stacked against Overwatch’s better qualities.  Blizzard perfectly executed the hero shooter  

[18:57] concept in his eyes, due in part because the  team existed on a plane that others aspired to,   but also because Overwatch had more  of a “narrow focus” than Battleborn.   The constant comparisons were what truly pushed  down the latter, he argued, stating that anyone  

[19:11] who spent significant time playing both games  could articulate the differences. Meanwhile,   examining them superficially suggested they  approached the subgenre from the same angle.   He called it “bad strategy” to operate on the  notion of becoming the best at something when,  

[19:25] on the other hand, offering a unique service  meant competing with one’s self. For Gearbox   and Battleborn, then, Pitchford felt the  jig was up once Blizzard entered the race.  Gearbox’s participation in the race screeched  to a halt in September 2017. Just 15 months  

[19:42] after Battleborn debuted, the company announced  the Fall Update[d] would mark the final curtain   call for new content drops. 2K and Gearbox  began “gradually sunsetting” the game in late   2019 until online servers officially shut down in  January 2021, thus making Battleborn unplayable. 

[20:00] When asked why[e] Borderlands 3 didn’t serve as  Gearbox’s first project for eighth-gen consoles,   Pitchford confessed it would’ve crumbled  beneath the weight of high expectations in   a next-generation environment—pressure the crew  was not yet ready to face. Handing off a third  

[20:15] Borderlands game, the Pre-Sequel, to 2K Australia,  then focusing on what eventually morphed into   Battleborn relieved some pressure. Yet, the fruits  born from sidelining its golden goose and building   a hero shooter resulted in the developer’s  attempt at breaking new ground technically  

[20:30] ceasing to exist after only five years. Gearbox,  and perhaps Borderlands 3, likely benefited   from Battleborn’s creation, but it’s unfortunate  that the domineering impact of Overwatch stunted  

[20:42] the growth of a project designed to push the  envelope—even if the best game won out in the end.