Ok. Lets talk Battleborn.
Let’s just start by saying that I could not be more excited for Battleborn. I was skeptical at first watching the trailers but when I played in the CTT I was 100% sold. I don’t think I’ve ever binged a game that hard and I’ve been the conductor of the hype train (amongst my friends) ever since. Battleborn is the first game I’m preordering ever and I fully intend on playing the first moment I can.
I believe the Battleborn is that good because you have truly poured you heart into this and you guys know how to make good games. Unfortunately, having a really good game doesn’t necessary sell itself and I’m sorry, but the marketing team just hasn’t been cutting it.
Ultimately, I think that Battleborn’s success will come down to player base. While I’m sure the single player is great, the multiplayer is what everyone want to play and what everyone who played in the CTT (your biggest fans) are talking about. If not enough people buy the game, it will only make it worse for itself. Which is why I’m so scared for Battleborn.
Blizzard has basically declared war on you, they’ve pulled out their biggest guns and aren’t afraid to throw low blows. Most people I’ve talked to already know what Overwatch is and are excited for it, but that hasn’t stopped them from plastering the youtube pages I visit with ads while I haven’t seen a whiff of Battleborn outside the news posts about how the Overwatch open beta is the same day as the Battleborn launch. Battleborn’s social media hasn’t been great either, the twitter feed constantly tweets old videos and encourages me to preorder for the sole purpose of getting meh looking skins (original skins look better). Let me tell you, Overwatch’s recent short was much better then the Battleborn story trailer.
I imagine that you can’t compete with Blizzard in terms of raw marketing budget but that just means you need to pull out all the stops and get creative; the time for half measures and traditional marketing has passed.
The first problem is that I have almost no reason to preorder, heck, there hasn’t even been the common ‘10% discount on preorders’ and considering the $80CDN price tag, sure would be nice. On that note, I think that the price of the game is a bit of a mistake (I’m sure the game is worth $80, but most people I know are of the opinion that Half Life 3 isn’t even worth that much) and its unfortunate that it can’t be changed (lest the people who have already bought it would be screwed) but that doesn’t preclude doing something crazy. What if you gave an extra copy to everyone who preordered? While that would cut a lot of sales, it wouldn’t be as bad as halving the price (since some people who never would have bought it would get to play) and it would (in theory) double your player base. I’m firmly of the opinion that if people play the game they’ll enjoy it and try to get their friends to play, further growing the number of revenue streams. The number of players won’t linearly correspond to revenue.
While that might be a little too bold for a AAA, you’re going to lose this battle if you don’t do something big. The clock is ticking Gearbox, make sure everyone sees how good this game is or you’ll be stuck making Borderland 7 before making another new IP.
Ps. I know nothing about marketing and might be 100% wrong about everything I just said.
pps. Beta hype! I can’t wait to play again!
) and vice versa. That’s brilliant, again!
