Overwatch just released a new patch that introduces a new map and a pretty excellent pair of Reinhardt skins, but weirdly, it got me thinking once again about Battleborn, its former would-be rival. It seems at this point that we’ve heard the last from the game, outside of a possible future switch to free-to-play, like what happened with 2K’s other struggling title, Evolve.
What keeps bothering me is not Gearbox’s decision to run with a hero shooter/MOBA. I don’t blame them for following that trend. But the way they did it? Trying to create an entirely new universe and IP to support it? I just don’t understand why they went down that road, instead of relying on their most successful, most beloved existing universe, Borderlands.
Borderlands 1 and 2 were wildly successful games, and it was understandable that fans were a bit confused when they saw the debut of Battleborn. It looked like Borderlands, it sounded like Borderlands, it apparently played like Borderlands, but…it wasn’t Borderlands.
Why? Why wasn’t it Borderlands?
I can think of a few reasons. One, they might have not wanted to change what Borderlands fundamentally was, a co-op loot shooter with a sprawling campaign. Changing the fundamentals of what the game was could end up with an Elder Scrolls Online situation where fans say “this isn’t what we want from this series” leading to potential underperformance.
Additionally, freeing themselves from the Borderlands universe allowed them to create new characters and lore that could better fit their design needs. As in, you couldn’t exactly have a healing mushroom character and have it fit in with established Borderlands lore very well.
And yet, the pros would seem to outweigh the cons in this situation. What would they have to lose by tying the game to a brand that has proven itself time and again? Why bother designing something like that looks and plays like 80% of a Borderlands game, when they might as well just go all the way?
It’s not as if Borderlands didn’t have the roster for something like this. From the three games in the series alone (including the Pre-Sequel), just going on playable hero characters, we have: Roland, Lilith, Brick, Mordecai, Maya, Salvador, Maya, Axton, Zer0, Gaige, Krieg, Athena, Wilhelm, Nisha, Claptrap, Jack and Aurelia. And obviously there are a few NPCs that could make the jump easily like Tiny Tina, Scooter, Dr. Zed, Ellie and others. That’s 20 I just listed without even trying, more than enough for a full roster in a game like this. Add in some unique aliens (Skags! Bullymogs!) and you’ve got yourself a diverse set of characters.
I don’t know if this would have “worked,” per se, as if nothing was changed about the fundamental structure and gameplay of Battleborn, I’m not sure if being in the Borderlands universe would have saved it. But would it have gotten the game more interest? Absolutely, and in retrospect, I don’t really understand why things played out this way.
Overwatch was also a new IP, but overlooking the fact that its animation and character design is simply world’s better than Battleborn’s, the reason it debuted as a new universe was that Blizzard already has three hugely successful IPs and one spin-off game that uses all of them (Heroes of the Storm). It was the perfect time to debut a new IP, and Overwatch was salvaged from the wreckage of Project Titan, meaning some part of the past seven years of work on the failed MMO went into its design. Battleborn had none of those factors at play. Gearbox has had a string of high profile failures, from Duke Nukem Forever to Aliens: Colonial Marines, but its two main Borderlands games were the shining stars of its portfolio. Why not use them?
Again, it’s hard to imagine that Borderlands would have been enough to make Battleborn a success, given the other problems that game had, but this notion has always struck me as strange ever since the game was first announced. Borderlands 2 now has more concurrent players on Steam than Battleborn, and all fans can do now is dance around and ask when Borderlands 3 is coming, as that’s what they really want to see. That kind of enthusiasm for the series could have been siphoned off and put into a new concept like Battleborn, but now we just have to wonder what could have been.
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