Battleborn Sales Are Not Very Impressive

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#78

Insane fanatic would be 20 hours a day. 6 hours a day = casual fanatic.

Whilst you could say blizzard don’t need to release a sequel for 10 years, they actually evolve their games into new iterations over time. If you take WOW now compared to WOW vanilla, it is wildly different, not just in terms of content but the general play style. They invest enough time and money into their existing games that they could have probably funded a new version of the game several times over. I would rather pay for a game that has evolved with expansion like that, than have to drop money on a full blown “new game” that is basically just v1.5 rather than v2.0.

How do you think they will handle creating BB2 and releasing in 2018 when by then the player base will be mainly PVP? Do you think BB2 will be a new campaign, but the PVP will be a continuation of what they are putting into place now?

#79

I think a PVP only sequel to Battleborn may happen. Release it for 30-40$, and focus heavily on the PVP aspect, polishing it and taking what they learned. Then just do a Tales of Battleborn game for those who want the story. I’m not interested in PVP, but I just see it as a viable turn for this games future.

#80

Maybe what could work is actually focusing on campaign for #2. Let the PVP evolve into a f2p game after 12 months or so, then have a new roster of characters as part of battleborn 2, the characters really are the star of the show here. The existing pvp players can either get these new characters via individual transactions or all in 1 hit by buying the full game.

This would allow them to put into place mechanics that would allow each character to be work differently in each environment, maybe PVE and PVP specific helixes that carry the modifiers to stop cross contamination of balance changes.

#81

Every single mmoba , it growth is baby steps. always been and pretty much always will be.

If they move to fast then it becomes one the hundreds that are trash heaps. way there going is find.

Rush to much then there to many glitches , in game bugs , in game ops characters, in game stuff that goes wtf and that worste then slow content.

#82

Like i said in my other thread

the only ones who can change that are Gearbox, they have to show, that they really are supporting this game, in my oppinion even the first patch takes too long

for a multiplayer focused game it is really essential to update the game often, doesn’t matter if patches, new missions, new taunts, clothes and so on

if GB doesn’t act really fast, the game will die before it gets the chance of growing

#83

Patch problems can be related to Microsoft and Sony. Since Gearbox is applying the patches for all three platforms, they need to get both Microsoft and Sony’s approval before being able to implement them on the consoles.
Is it dumb? Yes. But it does seem to be necessary sadly.

#84

It’s annoying, not sure I’d say dumb.

Say for example a patch creates a security issue and Sony or Microsoft get hacked as a result. That’d be a bad day for all of us.

Patches take time, we had one on day one that would have been the latest cut from what gearbox have, given the time to get through the certification process maybe a week say, that means they will have only had 3 weeks to develop/test/certificate a new patch, that’s a lot to ask of any company. It takes a lot of time and effort to patch something once it has gone live, you need a stringent controlled process to minimise the risk of making things worse. I am sure they are working furiously to get it out of the door, but sometimes it doesn’t matter how much person power you throw at something, things take time.

Have patience, I think that within the first month after release we will see a patch, it won’t be everything you are hoping for, in the words of Jesse Ventura sometimes a bug gets ‘dug in like an Alabama tick’. But it will be something.

Another subject altogether is why did the issues people are reporting not get picked up and fixed in pre-release testing?

#85

You say you can have maps and cosmetics in OW, true, skins are better than BB (cause bb are not really skin, are map schemes…) but it got almost 3 maps, and 2 game modes, not even different game modes, all is a deathmatch.

What I try to say, IMO, is that OW got lot less content than BB actually, and im pretty sure, pretty pretty sure, knowing blizzard, that they will release some skins or other content AND some expansions with more characters you gonna need to pay for.

Actually, almost all games, got DLC and packs to get them, through the game, or, with some money. Look at GW2, for example (that got lots more content than any of this) where there is a shop to get gems (or buy gems with gold from the game). Thats because DLC give a good bunch of money.

I don’t think BB needs, or should, live thanks to DLC, but I think OW (or blizzard if you preffer) is a good example for that, cause they sell expansions even for WoW where you paying a monthly fee…

1 Like
#86

This problem could have been circumvented if Battleborn was a PC exclusive.

#87

Apparently, people have been returning the game in droves

http://steamspy.com/app/394230

You can see here, it peaks, then it falls by about 5k

#88

Uh, 3 maps and 2 game modes? What are you talking about?

The game has 12 maps, across 3 game-modes. 12, not 3. That’s a big difference. Also:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/12/08/overwatch-wisely-decides-to-keep-all-future-heroes-and-maps-free/#55f2eb1061c1

That’s not to say we might not see expansions in the future, but they’ve promised all DLC will be cosmetic, and all heroes & maps will be free, so as to not fragment the community.

1 Like
#89

This is a new before closed beta, i talk for what i saw in open beta.

#90

I played the open beta as well, I don’t understand your comment. It had all 12 maps in it. Also I forgot to comment on it, but what’s wrong with a MMORPG having expansions? It’s usually a huge amount of content added, for half the price of a new game. 15$ a month is for server costs, as well as content patches in between. Look at all the most successful MMORPGS of all time - they all have paid expansions AND Monthly fees. Everquest, DAOC, FFXI, FFXIV, WoW, ect.

Does it suck that OW doesn’t have a SP? Absolutely, Blizzard is legendary for their storytelling, so it’s really sad, but the game is fun enough, and their lore videos and comics and whatnot are so good, you somehow don’t care while playing, and still feel immersed in a MP only shooter - very hard to do.

#91

Well you know, they also promised SC2 would be a single-game, then they released it in three parts. They promised the MP component of SC2 wouldn’t be affected and every new units would be available for free, but in the end everybody had to buy all three games.
It’s also the guys who were wrong about the outlash at Diablo 3 “coloured” visuals or when they claimed players didn’t want Vanilla servers ( hence the success of free illegal vanilla servers ).

Point is, they are very often wrong and make a looot of mistakes and generally they just brush it under the rug like nothing happened :stuck_out_tongue:

#92

Uhm, what are you talking about?

They never promised Starcraft 2 to be a single game. Do you remember the original had an expansion too, almost as expensive as the base game? Each SC2 game is the same length, singleplayer wise. Find me that promise and I’ll concede your point. Blizzard games have -always- had expansions.

And MP Component of SC2 isn’t effected by expansions. New units -are- available for free. So I don’t understand that.

As for Diablo 3, yeah, the visuals were controversial, but it ended up working out. Fastest selling PC game of all time - constant free updates to the game over the year. They’ve added an entire expansions worth of content for free, on top of an actual expansion.

I don’t really follow WoW, but I can understand them, not running Vanilla servers. Financially, it wouldn’t make sense. RuneScape does it with OS Runescape, but that game is incredibly basic to run. Meanwhile, they’d literally have to create a separate development team to run Vanilla WoW, something that’d probably bring in little profit or actually none. That recent controversy about shutting down the private server -was- ■■■■■■■■ though.

#93

I never saw 12 maps (not even close) on open beta, and game modes where capture and another where one team should guard a cargo and burn the enemy base with it, while the other team should intercept it (yes, it got two positions, but for me is just one mode with side switching), if there is another mode, i can’t remember/didn’t see it.

About fees and expansions, i never said they are bad, Im just saying what blizzard usually do, this is: sell whatever they want, even having a fee, because they got a big group of fans that will buy anything with the blizzard trademark.
About what you say to pay a fee and got expansions on the most succesful mmorpg of all times, well, that was pretty long time ago, actually, the most succesul games don’t got any fee.

I never said OW sucks, i got the preorder… im trying to be objective and just writing what i know: I think its hype is way to high cause fans goes crazy with all the media and marketing, and that the game is not as “big” as reviews says: it got few maps (you say it got more, ok, i didnt see them… but…im not saying you are liying), few game modes; where I got the feeling all are almost the same, a FPS deathmach with skills and some map particularities. Also, it got no character customization, or progression in any mean, nothing like gear, helix or mutations from BB, or cards from paladins, no SP or campaign (some people says “dont need it” but i got hours of fun in BB solo)… And no co-op options…

On the other side, as I said, their visuals/skins are better than BB (not something really impressive in number cause there are 2/3 for character, plus colour schemes, but definetly more than BB) and maps are nice.

This don’t make it better, or worst (for me may be worst, for others, better….) is just I think BB is way bigger than OW.

#94

Starcraft 2 was just plain Starcraft 2 until they announced themselves that it was was becoming a three part game, which for me is quite different from a full game with two expansions. I agree it wasn’t a “promise” per se, but they had been talking of Starcraft 2 as a full standalone game for a long time before they suddenly decided to break it into three parts. One campaign per game as opposed to one game with all campaign and expansions with new campaigns. Mostly because, as they boasted about, “the campaigns were going to be so huge !”. Arguably, the PvE result of SC2, especially in WoL, is pretty laughable. An incoherent story and poor mission designs acting only as tutorial for each new unit. Honestly, one game could have contained all three campaigns in the state they were ultimately released in !

As for the MP, you had to upgrade. You could still play WoL but you wouldn’t get access to HotS new units… this was working just as Frozen Throne where you couldn’t join a FT game when you had WC3. In short, every game had its own ladder and ranking system. Sure, ranked/ladder isn’t all that there is to multiplayer but it’s still one of the big thing Blizz is trying to push since at least SC1, so having to upgrade to be able to remain competitive was a distinct lie to the “MP won’t require the new games” promise they made.

Diablo3 was the fatest selling game, but fast-selling isn’t a mark of quality : it’s a mark of marketing. Reaching a high number of sales on a wider timetable is a mark of quality though : people test the game, talk about it, bring more players, etc. Heck, I remember even the lead designer of Diablo 2 saying how he was disappointed with D3, only to be mocked and insulted by Jay Wilson, who also refused to add a PvP mode to D3, or take down the RMAH. Ultimately, he was “removed” from the design team of Reapers of Soul with an excuse post from Rob Prado on their forums.

As for the vanilla servers, yeah I agree. Seriously, Vanilla is like a nostalgic dream. It’s just thatthe debate has made a pretty loud return with Blizz suing and taking down one of the biggest illegal Vanilla server ( frankly, I agree with them. It was illegal after all ! ). It’s taken them 6 or 8 years though, and it comes just after Warlords which was a pretty ultra short expansion. Are they going to do official Vanilla servers? I don’t think so, but… there is a video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuOYmqSF6OQ ) illustrating my point, actually. People actually do want Vanilla server, and Blizz big heads were just wrong about that.

There were a few other points I sadly can’t discute. I can’t bring proofs - it was mostly internal, about WoW, SC2 or even Titan. Let’s say they often are wrong, and that it seemed it cost them in the long run… First and foremost, “allying” with Activision, which is something I think we all can acknowledge as not a good thing :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#95

I feel like there are two things that are holding back Battleborn.

  1. The micro-transactions. I don’t buy paid games that have further microtransactions. I feel it really forces compromises in the game design. So despite buying Gearboxes other games I skipped Battleborn.

  2. Overwatch has been a huge hit. I also skipped it for the same reason, they do micro-transactions, but the game has gotten a lot of traction and even though they really aren’t the same game at all I think people tend to think of them as the same type of game.

In any case I hope Gearbox comes out with an amazing, and micro-transaction free, Borderlands 3.

2 Likes
#96

We’re below that point. Matchmaking takes forever for many people.

#97

I think that it needs to be stated that 100,000 copies = 60,000,000 Dollars. There’s no number for Battleborn but Borderlands 2 only cost between 30-35 million. It might be unlikely but this game may have cost less. For that game they had to develop a ground up loot system on a new engine. This game runs on the same engine and most likely a modded form of that loot system. Sounds like a win to me if you profit in the first month of sales.