
Remember Battleborn? Gearbox's answer to Overwatch was a similar hero shooter with flamboyant characters, but it failed to catch on in the same way. Upon launch in 2016, it gained fairly positive reviews, but didn't make much of an impact among consumers, and publisher 2K Games couldn't muster any real enthusiasm.
The game was kept alive with updates until about a year later, and in 2019, it was withdrawn from sale on digital stores. Since then, things have slowly been winding down to an eventual server shutdown. Yesterday (31st January 2021) was the last day you could log in and play Battleborn. Now, with online support officially over, this is a game lost to time. It's no longer playable in any capacity.
It's a sad story, but unfortunately, not every game can capture the moment in the way the likes of Overwatch or Fortnite have. The upside is that Gearbox has had far more success recently with Borderlands 3, so we're sure it's not too saddened by this. Onward and upward.
[source support.2k.com]
Comments 22
@liamcroft
Any chance of a visage review?
It looks like the PT demo made into a game.
Riposa in Pace (R.I.P)
It wasn't really Gearbox answer to, right, as Battleborn and Overwatch released at the same time?
Wonder if there was an option to at least leave the "story" mode available. Probably not worth to them to reprogram that.
I liked this game quite a bit, but eventually stopped playing since I'm no fan of multiplayer games.
This game was garbage right out of the gate. Surprised it stayed active this long. I tried to sell back my copy a couple years ago and it was only worth pennies at that time.
@Bartig Yeah they released a week or 2 apart from what I recall. I remember trying the beta for both and even without being a huge MP fan, it was plainly clear Battleborn was going to get trounced. Game never stood a chance
Rest in Peace, Battleborn, I hardly (well, really never) knew ye.
To all future 'hero' shooters, let the rotting corpse of Battleborn that lies here before you tell a cautionary tale not to walk this path again.
Woe betide all ye unscrupulous game retailers that will now throw still-sealed copies of Battleborn into the $1 bin in hopes some unsuspecting Granny will buy this 'looks like OverSnatch/Fortnut/etc' for their grandchild, with no knowledge it can no longer be played.
Well that's 10 people having an unhappy Monday
@Dan_ozzzy189 It's scary but it's riddled with game breaking bugs on console. I got stuck halfway through and have to start over lol. The controls also suck. I would wait for a sale if I were you.
I liked this game more than Overwatch - too bad it became near-dead very quickly and didn't run particularly well on PS4
Battleborn was way better than it deserved. Gearbox did itself a disservice by trying to claim it was competing directly with Overwatch. They could barely have played more differently.
Gearbox went and made a great FPS MOBA and then did its damnedest to claim outright it was no such thing. It scared away MOBA fans (such as myself) who wanted an FPS MOBA and simultaneously courted hero shooter fans (of which there were a burgeoning number thanks to Overwatch releasing shortly thereafter) who were then disappointed by what the game actually was.
It was just a complete mishandling/misunderstanding of what they had on their hands. A poor post-release support plan and pricy microtransactions (until the unlock system was tweaked) were just the nails in the coffin.
This could have been a real hit had Gearbox known how to market the property. It played as smoothly and enjoyably as Borderlands. And had they leaned more into the Saturday morning cartoon aesthetic that the cinematics had, they could have carved out a way better spot for themselves.
I remember picking this up for £3.85 a few months after launch. The fact that it dropped in price so dramatically and fairly quickly is quite telling.
So this becomes another coaster then.
I'm not an online multiplayer kind of gamer but it does make me sad knowing that games like this become lost forever once the developer pulls the plug on the servers.
I bought Battleborn Digital Deluxe (Full Game + DLC) for $22 and refused to go in on Overwatch - history has shown this was not the correct call
Bought it for £3.99 once upon a time, played it for all of 10 minutes and now it's sat somewhere in my library never to be seen again. RIP but you won't be missed.
@Dan_ozzzy189 I waited years for it to come to console and it was mostly Well worth it but the rakan chapter is broken and I can't proceed. Other than that it's pretty amazing lol
I am proud to say that Paladins has outlived yet another hero shooter.
And this is why games that require an online connection are terrible.
Gearbox are actually quite terrible at making games. They somehow hit a home run with Borderlands and that seems to be the only franchise that they can consistently make well. (mostly because they re release the same games). Everything else they have done, from Duke Nukem Forever to Aliens Colonial Marines has been utter dog poop.
The thing is, the devs themselves are actually very talented. The problem is that management is utterly terrible at their jobs.
Least it lasted longer than Law Breakers
@ATaco Randy "Pitchfork" Pitchford probably one of the most sly people in gaming. Weird how he's vanished since that lawsuit from the guy who provided Claptraps voice fiasco. GB need to get rid of him period
The strange thing about the game i loved the Bèta and it felt like it ran worse with the full release somehow. The other thing is always online is a joke and should never be a thing. The singleplayer part should work without a connection this would have been fun with splitscreen with friends.
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