#43

I don’t know that I’d agree with that assessment. Yes, BL3 and TPS share a pronounced fall after release, but for all of BL3’s problems it has never fallen below BL2 in monthly concurrent numbers. Even at its lowest points, BL3 is at least 2,000 players over BL2 at peak, and is often higher by 10,000 players or more. TPS sank well below BL2 in concurrent numbers 2 months after its release, and never really increased after that. BL3 does go up after content updates and Steam discounts, even if they’re not nearly as pronounced as BL2’s.

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(Green is BL3, blue is BL2, orange is TPS)

IMO, BL3 just hasn’t been out long enough to suggest which pattern it will follow. If Director’s Cut is the last significant new content we see–yeah, I suspect BL3 will just flatline like TPS. If it keeps getting support–particuarly in the form of new playable areas and campaigns–then it could easily rebound.

What I do think the concurrent player numbers suggest:

  • Players come back for new maps and leave once they’re finished. Retention after that point is poor across all 3 games, and most obvious in the case of TPS.
  • Mayhem 2.0 and the severely shortened DLC4 campaign delivered the biggest hits to BL3’s playerbase.
  • Nothing suggests that players are going back to BL2 in light of BL3’s numerous issues. Players are definitely leaving BL3, but they don’t go back to BL2. Their concurrent numbers haven’t changed since the release of BL3.
8 Likes
#44

I just try to live day by day when it comes to games, which means that I am waiting for BL3’s next DLC, but my expectations basically go towards zero (the number, not the Vault Hunter :wink: )

Not to sound like an a**hole, but I don’t trust others opinions (regarding the quality of games) if that isn’t objectively quantifiable. That is also why I don’t watch many reviewers and only those regularly which can communicate well enough what it is that I’m getting into. “It’s going to be amazing” does nothing for me, except expressing the passion another person might have. I want to hear numbers. Give me “X new maps”, “Y new legendaries and uniques” or “new raid boss” instead of “its amazing”.

Excuse my tangent, but I reserve my first impression for the 10th, when DLC6 seems to be revealed.

2 Likes
#45

@janejana I disagree a bit on the “game hasn’t been out long enough” part. It’s been out for about a year and a half, 5 DLCs in. During the same time stretch BL2 (if we look from release to 2014) had 2 major up-spikes, while BL3 is yet to have 1 (not counting the Steam release “updoot”).

That said, the chart is missing at least the first 7 months on Epic. It’s possible that the majority of PC players are on Epic and the missing “updoots” in the Steam charts are there. It would be interesting to see the data if anyone knows how to get it.

Better picture will be available about a month or two after Director’s Cut release. We’ll see how that goes and what the latest excitement is about.

Edit: props for uploading the chart.

4 Likes
#46

I am exactly excited for this information as I currently am about the now defunct VIP program.

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#47

Oh they are just happy because they found another gun to muffle, an make it as weak and meaningless as all the other guns, see they want all the guns to be exactly the same and power 1 so everyone goes to some other game and leaves them out of a job.
I mean really its our job to find the best gun to do the job in ( arms race ) and work with that but as soon as they see that we are kicking ass with it they muff it, and so we look for the next so they can muffle that one too, it’s getting old, if they keep this up they will all be power 1 and nobody will play anymore.

#48

only a mind like Lee Harvey Oswald’s … can unravel this mystery.

Here is what is going on guys.

  1. Embracer//Gearbox deal puts a legal/financial/logistical wall between the Borderlands franchise and all other Gearbox properties.
  2. Embracer will now fund all of Randy’s pie in the sky “incubation level” projects
  3. Borderlands 3 money stays within the Borderlands franchise and Randy can not touch it.

The result is that Gearbox is now compelled to continue to re-invest into the Borderlands franchise because Randy can’t shuffle the money around any longer.

Management informed Borderlands content creators of the news that Borderlands 3 and future games are going to get an infusion of investment money because Embracer is now funding all non-Borderlands Gearbox stuff.

4 Likes
GBX has been sold to Embracer Publishing
#49

No level cap increase, please… I am about to finish acquiring every legendary at lv.65 so it would suck for them to immediately be outdated, not to mention all the Arms Race gear, Terror builds, etc. etc. they would be resetting to 0.

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#50

So I am going to be extremely blunt here. BL3 ended up being the Stream Teams game. That was not a good thing. The developers pulled feedback from less then 5% of the player based and acted on it to refine the experience. In turn they alienated the 40% of the community that is more then just casual players but we are not the kind of players who are literally playing the game for hundreds of thousands of hours.

When iterating on a RPG or or loot based game it is dangerous to assume any group of people or individuals represent the majority of players. It seems that is what GBX did here. The Stream team seems to be a wired mix of quality assurance and community management but they don’t seem to realize that is what they are. When a Youtuber or any of us as one person makes a comment about what we would like to see added to BL3 it needs to be take for what it is worth. What it is worth is very little in proportion to the player base at large.

For some context Bordercast gets upwards of 10k to 12k viewers. The Borderlands show gets upwards of 150k to 200k viewers. Borderlands 3 content trailers get over a million easily.

Those aren’t absolute numbers but they give us an honest look at the scope of the player base and how many player are casual, how many players are dedicated/hardcore. Then amongst the more dedicated and hardcore you see who fallows the stream team and it is also likely that it is a smaller amount of people who constantly agree with everything the Borderlands stream team says.

The point I am trying to make here is that Borderlands 3 was not even take in a direction to be a game for the hardcore and dedicated players. It was taken in a direction to appease less then 10% of all Borderlands fans. With a player base this size I think it is irresponsible to listen to not even 10% of feedback instead of creating a system to organize and coordinate feedback form several different offical Gearbox platforms like the forums, Shift support and so on.

I can say without a doubt in my mind GBX ignored some of the most popular feedback which was removing or changing how anointment worked, taking the time to create even one DLC character, adding a reason to play TVHM, giving people the option to pick their own Mayhem modifiers instead of rolling them, more Mr Torgue, more B team, I am sure there is more extremely popular genetal feedback but those are the ones I have come across most often.

I really hope when we get a new Borderlands they take a step back and ask themselves why more people spent more time on BL1 and BL2 then they did BL3.

15 Likes
#51

i am sorry mate but it is not sidelining anyone because of “general positive personality” i

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#52

Very well said.

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#53

Like yourself couldn’t of agreed more with @maxeastwood.

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#54

A little earlier, GB put out a tweet which told us that we will be getting new forms for each of our vault hunters, revealed on Wednesday, and they will also be announcing some news for a “beloved” part of the franchise. My first thought was BL2, but I don’t know what they’d do with that (a current gen remaster / remake?) so I think it’s more likely to be an update on the next Tales instalment.

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#55

Gaaaa! lol. I hope not.

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#56

Gaaaa! lol. I hope so.

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#57

I enjoyed it so wouldn’t bother me any. Not to mention it never crashed my console and I could read the text so I might be a little bias there as well. haha

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#58

Only ourselves after trying stuff.

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#59

FYI, this was the tweet I was talking about https://twitter.com/Borderlands/status/1358823583598866434?s=19

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#60

But it was just my spe-cu-la-tion
Runnin’ away with me
It was just my spe-cu-la-tion
Runnin’ away with me

#61

Heavy speculations ahead!

The term “Borderlands classic” of the tweet sticks with me. What games do you recognize as classics in the franchise?

I only see BL1 and BL2 as such. I love Tales, but it’s not a classic of the franchise, it’s an extension of it, one of those very few great outliers. BL1 was and is still regarded as the originator of the whole genre, BL2 is probably the best looter shooter ever and even if you think otherwise, which is fine, it’s the game that jump-started Borderlands from “the first ugly Steps of the genre” to “the franchise to surpass to rule the field of looter shooters”.

So, what about that “classic”? Both BL1 and BL2 already got the remaster treatment, BL1 as late as 2019, so just remastering them again isn’t really in the cards. But how about a remake of Borderlands 1? How about a remake that brings it in line in terms of mechanics while encapsulating what made the first BL so special? This sounds like a good plan, especially now that Gearbox has more money to burn as part of the Embracer Group.

Originally didn’t want to watch the Borderlands show and just watch the recaps later, but now I’m curious.

1 Like
#62

Might be this AND may be Handsome Collection as well for PS5/XBSX?

1 Like