Why the exclusive character for PS4?

Battleborn Battleborn General Discussion
#65

You tell me! :slightly_smiling: What I mean is, whether or not Battleborn becomes an “E-sport” is entirely up to our fans. Believe me, everyone here would love to see that happen! The demand by our community will dictate Battleborn’s place in
the E-sports echelon. To that end, if you’d like to see Battleborn be an E-sport, help us spread the good word!

What you’re asking here is essentially DLC related. We’ll have some DLC announcements in the near future, but for now, we’re focused on making Battleborn the very best it can be at launch.

Believe me when I tell you that we’re totally sensitive to the community’s feelings on “pay to win” type strategies and that’s not something we would have you worry about. The team is committed to doing everything possible to make sure that the Battleborn experience is a positive one for everyone.

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#66

I’m geussinf that Sony wanted their own character, not there own skins.pretty much the principle of buyer gets to chose.sony “bought” that character

#67

I’m not gonna say that’s what the community wants, but that’s kinda what many of us are hoping for! Myself and many of my Dota friends (around 170+) would definitely would hop over to give it a shot.You guys should definitely consider it, if not already be turning some gears. I know Blizzard is more established than you guys, but I’m telling you Overwatch won’t be able to compete as long as character release is doable.

If making money is an issue (hence paid character release), releasing skins (even basic ones) would sell and be more readily available to make without changing the balance. You could even (not saying you need to) open some kind of workshop like Valve or a forum to submit artist designs and release them singly or in chests! thus providing a continuous stream of income, more community involvement but you still have the final word, and again, no threat to balance!

I’m actually quite thrilled you responded, and again any updates would be great now or in the future, but i do realize you may not have the info or release any secrets! Hopefully someday after grad I can apply to work for this game if it’s still going strong :smiley:

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#68

Maybe a solution would be to have character DLC (Characters that you pay to unlock) and a secondary way to unlock them without paying (A LENGTHY GRIND…like those 999999(?) pricetags some characters had during the CTT). It’s what other MOBAs like LoL does.

I guess as long as there is a way to unlock it for free, ragardless of how “fast” or “practical” it may be, a player can’t whine and complain about how it is “Pay to Win”.

I personally don’t see an issue with having to pay for additional characters since you’re not just paying for a “bigger pool draft”, you’re paying for a brand new Co-op and Solo experience as well.

Just because a game has a tantalizing MOBA-esque aspect to its gameplay does not exclusively make it a MOBA.

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#69

Please not the LoL way, the endless grinding only to have those characters nerfed hard!

I do quite value the suggestion as it’s still better than a straight pay wall, but again Dota makes plenty and every character is accessible. This isn’t an e-peen argument as well (I’ve just never been a fan of Riots marketing, game is okay I guess), another similar market design to dota would be CSGO skins.

I did address above if the game would be casual like Borderlands it would be fun and then I wouldn’t really mind, but if wants a pro scene a paywall has got to go.

#71

I wish there was a discount for multiple platform purchases. I have it pre-ordered for PC but wouldn’t mind having it for PS4 as well.

#72

I’m sure there are many people here who would wish the same- loads of us have Borderlands in multiple formats. But I’m not sure that the various platform companies would agree to it. That stuff is down to the publisher to sort out, I guess. I’m not sure I’ve seen that kind of discount before.

#73

I’m not really thinking that paying for extra characters will destroy the balance inside the multiplayer. Again, we have so many characters to pick from, so much variety and even then, there will be some that will be out there for free, I almost can guarantee that. So yeah, some of the characters won’t be playable for free and while its really a bummer, the ‘‘rig’’ will be focused on specific kind of characters, specific kind of roles inside of Battleborn. We’re getting here a lot of game tools to screwing around with, and if we want more of them, I personally find that legitimate and acceptable to pay for it.

As for other games that may release all sorts of characters for free; Battleborn is a mixture of a lot of things, we don’t know exactly how the game is gonna come out by a long shot, even the folks at GBX, and that’s what thrilling about Battleborn – we may achieve here something totally different and unique by doing things different, and maybe, if the fan base think that payed characters it’s not something Battleborn should be up to, the whole studio will listen. Don’t know about you guys, but all in all, I’m excited to find out what happens in May :smiley:

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#74

Additionally I’m sure myself and my friends would love to spread a following for this and help out! Is there any way suggestions on how we could reliably spread this without beta access or insight until the release date? The twitter posts seem the only way to collect new data, as the website seems a bit sluggish in comparison such as the character roster. Is there Ranked Match Making or just Pubs? Would we organize our own events or would there be GB only sanctioned events like LAN parties?

I apologize in advance about the question barrage, but the information on this game regarding this seems a bit murky for the community.

#75

As for new info, keep an eye on the official Battleborn and 2K social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). That’s where our news tends to “break” first. Share these posts with your friends and let them know how excited you are about the game!

It’s quite alright! I’m happy to answer anything I can. Some of these things are murky by design and some of them just have yet to be addressed publicly. Trust me, by the time we’re closer to launch, many of these things will become much clearer. Until then, enjoy the suspense! ;D

#76

Now my back is itchy. So itchy…

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#77

Aww man. An e-sport battleborn would be awesome.

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#79

Wait battleborn E Sport?

Who in 2K can I sell my soul to to make this a thing? I wouldn’t be needin it if it were…

#80

The time and money it takes to create a skin vs creating a brand new playable character with a 3D model, animation, voice over, balanced weapons and abilities is an order of magnitude more expensive.

#81

Of course you don’t make a single skin to finance a whole character… The hell.
You make a bunch of skins (Since it’s the example that seems to stick), which sells continuously to finance other stuff. You can also do sales, or you know… events and content update, which bring new peoples, therefor sales.

Bunch of random example:
You can look at any free-to-play. That’s how they bloody work. Sell paid stuff to finance free stuff. And even when they do completely free stuff like a big update, it’s to bring back peoples to the game. Nothing is actually ‘free’ in the free-to-play industry, it’s just taking an indirect road.
(Which, with the way you seems to think, shouldn’t work at all.)

Want a big AAA title for comparison? GTA V don’t even sell things beside Shark cards, and do free updates with new cars and guns every month because it bring new players and therefore, sales.
Of course, it’s easier because they got a big name. So… Might not be enough for Battleborn.

Guild Wars 2 basically financed every update until the extension with the tons of convenience and skins in the store. They added new maps & monsters, fixed tons of bugs, added features for guilds… etc.

Natural Selection 2 only made 2 skin packs and did lots of updates, including new maps. And that’s not even a big title.

Etc, etc… That’s not the examples who lacks.

I really don’t get why you don’t understand how simple that is. Not easy; simple.
Finance free stuff with paid stuff. Even if it’s loads of paid shiny and baubles for one bigger free important one.

#82

To be fair GTAV sold well over 50 million copies…thats not a comparison for any AAA game really lol. I have yet to see any non F2P game successfully sustain their game with such a model bringing free content with any real “meat” so to speak. GW2 got a ton of updates yes, but a valid comparison would be if they added Classes for free.

Full priced AAA titles released on PC and Console are generally far better supported by the console audience if we’re to be objective here…transplanting a F2P business model to such a game would indeed be risky from a business standpoint, Free is great but I guarantee 2K will be looking for numbers not good will lol.

Not to say it isnt possible, but patronizing with an absence of a real example is questionable. We’ll see how things shake out in the end.

On the positive side SFV is trying something similar but it certainly entails a healthy grind if you want to get ALL paid Dlc characters for free.

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#83

That was a very good post, and if I had any Internet Points to give you I would. But that’s not the way Battleborn is going to be.

#84

I’m ok with the whole 26th character thing, but why is Toby only available on ps4 in the beta. I just don’t see the logic behind it. Like why Toby, and why would there be less characters available for one specific platform in the beta?

#85

Considering GW2: Maps and events is nearly the same in terms of work (And money) needed. They had to make new animations, monsters design, textures, models, voice acting, writing, etc… For some big events (Which were free)

As for Non-F2P, i gave a few example (Killing floor, Natural Selection, Red Orchestra, Insurgency, etc)
But you want the opposite? A competitive game which sold additional characters and bled his entire player base in a month or two? Evolve.
It’s a 2K game, by the way. Filled with DLCs.

DLCs is a good way to make easy money (And sustain a game, actually), but if badly done, it’s only a “quick shot” that will kill your game. (But some Publishers don’t care as long as they got the money back.)

Hm, not completely true. That’s a misconception.

Some AAA games sell more on consoles, while some others sell more on PC. It also depend on the region (USA sell more on console than Europe, generally speaking)
Also, often, a AAA game sell longer on PC than Console, and PC is more toward Digital than Physical copies (Making it impossible to resell it once you have finished it)
It’s actually hard to give a binary opinion on that, as it depend on the game, region, and system.
Battleborn might sell more on console in the US, and more on PC everywhere else. Or the other way around… or not… Or maybe…

Yeah, probably, and sadly. Because so far, 2K did stick to their DLCs view in every game they published.
Which is my worries.

#86

Evolve isnt exactly adequate as its a very different game. I played Evolve extensively and its problem was essentially a lack of depth/modes outside of online and a frustrating experience even in its main draw Hunt mode. Playing with Randoms was unecessarily annoying and time wasting due to a NEED for full team communication to win, which console gamers dont like to be literally Forced into. DLC itself didnt have much to do with failing making a splash, as much as I wanted that game to be hype…it was sorely lacking.

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