If I may be so bold, as a lowly diehard fan of gearbox and especially the entire BL series, I’d like to offer a critique to marketing. All the BLs were 4 player co-op. I seem to remember buying buy3getfree packages on steam. It was a major reason I pre-ordered the 4pack for my buddies. At $180 for 4 copies lowered the price for us from $60 to $45. A very fair marketing strategy to strengthen the community, build loyal teams, and sell DLC.
BB is primarily a 5 player co-op with multiple 5 player modes. Wouldn’t it make a huge amount of sense to offer a buy 4 get one free. $240 for 5 copies guarantees teams, builds the community, and gives a major incentive to gift copies to friends on the fence and strengthen the community, and is selling 4 copies at $48 each in a single sale really hurtful? I think it would not only increase sales but generate some positive appeciation from your best fans.
just my 2 cents,
TD3
I like this idea. I know I have about 10 people or so who are going to buy or thinking about buying Battleborn. Having a discount like this would be huge. Could be on Steam and maybe on digital orders for consoles? That way they do not have to worry about losing money on the production side of physical disks.
In fact, my first copy of Borderlands 2 (the first Gearbox game I ever played), was a gifted copy from a 4 player pack. Since then, I have fallen in love with the series and now own:
Borderlands Classic: The complete pack
Borderlands 2 UVHM upgrade pack 1 and 2
All the Headhunter packs
Every single playable class
Several skins for multiple classes
Gifted a copy of Borderlands 2 to a friend
The Pre Sequel and the season pass at launch
If it weren’t for that extra copy of BL2 from a friend, I wouldn’t be here.
Well that’s just luck and a good friend you got there.
At the first day of the beta the viewer numbers on twitch where amazing but only two days later its already behind the farming simulator 15 and many more.
The game looks funny as hell and I have already peordered it but by now I’m sure that the marketing department of 2k has failed big time.
And all reasons that I can think against that apply petty much to the big (overwatch) and small competitors (paragon) too, only with the difference that they have exorbitant more viewers.
Sadly, I agree…
Yesterday (Europe evening) there were like 30 streams on youtube with 15 viewers… Most of the streams were empty…
I played games of BO2 today and every second game I wrote to chat that there’s Battleborn open beta next week and they should all try it.
The only reaction I received was “What is Battleborn?”
Steam open beta sub forum is almost empty.
I just hope they won’t underestimate current situation.
But the good thing is that almost every of my bookmarked youtube channels created lately some kind of report / gameplay about the game…
Which is good !
Still 3 more days to go, time is running sloooow 
Well, I take the fact that gearbox seem to have underestimated player numbers for the PS4 beta, given the clogged servers, to be a good thing.
Don’t rely too much on streams as an indicator of a games success, especially not at this stage.
But I think it is valid indicator to compare the popularity and/or publicity of Battleborn with its competitors, especial if I consider that there where only a few sources for gameplay videos until now while overwatch somehow manages to keep viewers entertained for month now.
(I have honestly no idea how anybody can watch something so long, I even stopped watching Battleborn because I don’t wanted to to overhype me)
And that’s the definition of wrong marketing.
OK… Just… Let’s all just try to spread the word even further 
Twitch is currently not a good indicator. As someone said, twitch is primarily a PC players audience.
And its a pc game but its not your fault, its easy to get the impressions that its an usa only ps4 game by the way all other target groups where forgotten.
I don’t think you understand my point. The open beta is currently only on PS4, so naturally PC players aren’t acquainted with the game. Thus the twitch audience is low.
Is it the different graphic quality in the 720p streams or because there are x,o,□ buttons over the skills that repell pc gamers in that scenario?
And why should no pc gamer know that its going to be on pc but will know it magically in the next three days?
I wouldn’t say it repells PC players, it’s just that a looooooot of people are getting this game for PC despite what some might say. One thread on these forums says 50% are PC. Plus totalbiscuit and other huge streamers are on PC. Also more PC players will of course be driven to watch if they understand how to play.
Bottom line, we’re seeing a small fraction of the game’s players right now. More PC streamers and players equals more viewers.
Yeah, we’re currently only seeing the PS4 players as I believe the early access has stopped at the moment.
lemmie check…
Yup, it’s over.
Personally, for me, it does. But not for those reasons.
Consoles are probably the least suitable platforms to watch FPS.
Mostly because of how… Hm… how to say that… how unnatural it is to aim on console. It slowly pan like a turret or a robot. It feel slow and awkward; as if we had the Third age & Seniors Competitive Scene.
FPS on console is a pain to watch, to be honest, for me and probably a lot of others peoples.
Tried a little bit myself, but it was weird. People seemed more hyped to play Overwatch open beta a month from now than an open beta they could play now. People are weird…
Responding to original post, sorry if this is rehashed stuff
Ummmmm…
Okay, I am going to try to respond, point by point. There is a moment I might be at a loss… we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!
The game is better now than it was in the CTT. This seems to be the consensus. Great news for you if you, like me, fell in love with the CTT!
Have a great game is more important than the hype machine. Notice what Gearbox/2K is doing here: They are learning from their mistakes! Building an absurd amount of hype for a game with a small playerbase in the beta tests just tends to lead players on. It builds a game up to an unobtainable status of “wow” and can only let players down in the end. Yes, I get frustrated when I talk to people at work who I want to have check out this game and they say “what’s that?” but it’s a necessary frustration. I can build the right amount of hype and my friends know what I like and if that coincides with what they like. The other thing this does is it doesn’t give people a chance to lose hype. Too many games build hype WAY up a year before the release, 6 months before the release, just to lose all steam if there is a setback or just a lull in the hype train. What I believe 2K is going to do is plaster the hell out of everything once the weekend hits, pushing the Open beta, putting the game front page on Steam, and then not letting up for the 2 weeks leading to the release. This will start to build momentum leading to the release instead of building momentum leading to… nothing.
All games’s successes come down to player base. The larger the player base, the better the success. That’s really the definition of success in any field! The larger the customer base, the better the success.
Blizzard has an entirely different game in Overwatch. Overwatch is to TF2 what Battleborn is to DotA. They are extensions of the original formula, be it in playstyle or features. People talk about Overwatch because Blizzard has Unteen Gazillion Dollars to keep a hype train going for two years thanks to milking the WoW addict farm they built. Blizzard is spending so much money on advertising and fancy looking story trailers for a game with no presented in-game story, it makes me wonder how much is actually going into the game itself. Obviously not much since it isn’t even a full game.
Bill Gates can’t compete with Blizzard in terms of Marketing budget! Also, I assume 2K knows a bit more about where they need to put their money than you, no offense. If you are a marketing executive with a masters in marketing and you run one of the worlds largest marketing firms, my apologies
The first problem I see is that you are putting this in terms of the Loony, probably the most absurdly named currency in history! The game is being released at the same retail price as Overwatch: $60 USD. The Season Pass is priced cheaper than it was for Borderlands 2: $20 vs BL2’s $30. Most people who follow Half-life would pay $60 TODAY for a chance to play it, so I don’t know what you’re talking about. Every game released now that isn’t on a screw you F2P scheme costs $60 if it’s AAA and usually around $20 for indie. If you think dropping the price is going to make Battleborn look more competitive, you’re opinion is very skewed. If you think that Gearbox/2K giving away a free copy for every purchase of the game makes it look like a strong competitor in the game industry, you are bat**** crazy dude. I don’t know how else to say that. “Here’s a game we have worked really hard on, put in a full story mode, a very deep set of PvP modes, built it up around being a competitive eSport, oh, and to show you how much confidence we have in our game, we are going to now give away free copies to everyone because we don’t want you to think we are afraid of the big bad Blizzard.” Do you see now nuts that sounds?
It’s not bold for a AAA title to BEFORE RELEASE start giving away free copies of a game, it’s stupid! Was it bold for Germany to try to invade Russia? No, it was stupid. Why would giving up before even starting be a good tactic? Have you seen a bad review for this game from the people in the early access? Have you seen these forums dead because everyone would rather play Overwatch? Why are you, like so many other people, dead set on this game being dead in the water? We have a HUGE community of players foaming at the mouth ready to play this game. A lot of them are planning on playing Overwatch as well, but most everyone here knows they are two different games. Why do you think a game with a $60 price tag and a full multiplayer coop campaign mode and unique PvP modes is going to die to a PvP only title with a $60 price tag?
PS, I just read the Post Script about you not knowing anything about marketing. I take back my conditional apology.
PPS, I guess I was not quite speechless so much as full of words! I tried not to cuss, but that was a bat**** crazy idea to give away free copies.
PPPS, I love post-scripts.
Been trying to get friends to try it all weekend (before April 12, because some might be busy with dark souls 3 and incursion update in division) and not getting much luck. I keep telling them this is one of those games you have to try to like. If ever you guys release another cool looking video that’s maybe around 4-5 minutes long, do market it and let the fans know! Bootcamp was awesome but some of them are a little lazy and didn’t want to watch 10 minutes.