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2K plans 'Battleborn' shutdown, yanks the game from digital shelves
More than two years after the team behind squad-based shooter Battleborn announced that efforts were winding down, 2K has officially put the game on deathwatch. It's no longer for sale in digital storefronts, after February 24th players won't be able to purchase any in-game currency, and in January 2021 the game's servers will shut down, rendering it completely unplayable.
'Battleborn' is winding down months after going free-to-play
Battleborn's move to a free-to-play model doesn't appear to have helped its chances. Gearbox has revealed that it's winding down work on the hero-based team shooter as the studio shifts its focus to a "highly anticipated" (but unnamed) project. There isn't any more planned content after the upcoming Fall Update, creative director Randy Varnell says, including skins and balance patches. The servers will stick around "for the foreseeable future," so you can still play -- it'll just remain relatively static.
'Battleborn' is free, but you'll need money to make the most of it
We all had high hopes when Battleborn was shown off at E3 in 2015. The first game from the studio that brought us Borderlands mixed MOBA and FPS genres to create something that looked even more dynamic and fun than previous arena-based shooters like Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately, Blizzard's Overwatch eclipsed 2K's friendly shooter and left Battleborn far behind. Last year, the publisher offered a price cut and a new hero in hopes of attracting new players and encouraging game owners to return to the action. Today, in what might seem like a last stand for the arcade shooter, Battleborn is available as a free trial for new players on PS4, Xbox One and PC via Steam.
Does the world need another first-person, team-based shooter?
"I'm not the only asshole who had this idea a few years ago," Cliff Bleszinski says in between sips of a sugar-free Red Bull. He's perched in the lounge area of his studio's E3 meeting space, on the other side of a thin wall where a dozen journalists and internet influencers are playing his latest game, a team-based shooter called LawBreakers. Every now and then, the players beyond the wall suddenly wail and clap as a game comes to a dramatic close. Bleszinski is talking about the market for online, first-person, team-based shooters -- a niche genre that, in mid 2016, is on the verge of oversaturation. Overwatch just came out, and it's been a monstrous hit for Activision Blizzard. It dominates the front page of Twitch, and there are already plans to transform it into a truly competitive, esports-focused title. Other similar games, such as Gearbox's Battleborn or Epic Games' Paragon, are also on the market, but they can't compare in terms of player numbers or hype.
'Battleborn' turned gaming cinematics into high art
The best part of Battleborn is its prologue cinematic. That's not to say the game itself isn't any good -- in fact, it's a wonderful single- and multiplayer experience for the fantastical first-person-shooter crowd. However, the opening video is divine. It's evocative, rich and effortlessly cool, built on a base of smooth hip-hop and anime-inspired, neon-coated illustrations. When I think of Battleborn, my mind is immediately saturated in the cinematic's soulful rhythm. This is a new brand of video game artistry. As a game, Battleborn doesn't feature cartoon characters; it's a fully realized 3D experience from Gearbox, the creators of Borderlands. In the same vein as Borderlands, Battleborn is highly stylized, but it looks nothing like the opening cinematic. That was on purpose.
'Battleborn' gets a hefty $20 price cut through the weekend
Battleborn, the frenetic team-based shooter from Gearbox Software, has introduced a $20 price cut. What's more, a brand new character joined its ranks, all on the same day rival shooter Overwatch made its debut. Coincidence or genius marketing? It could be a little bit of both.
What's on your HDTV: 'Battleborn,' 'Marseille'
This week Netflix premieres its first French original production with Marseille, starring Gérard Depardieu in a political drama. For gamers, the week's biggest release is Gearbox Software's Battleborn, aka the game that definitely is not Overwatch (which, coincidentally, just allowed early access to its open beta) and has an episodic plan for its single player mode. Meanwhile the Xbox One and PS4 swap exclusives as Superhot and Shadow Complex Remastered make their respective platform debuts. The Good Wife is ready to call it a series, and Netflix has season two of Grace and Frankie. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
'Battleborn' beta launches April 8th on PlayStation 4
If you haven't noticed, episodic gaming is all the rage these days. The developers at Gearbox have taken notice and are structuring Battleborn's story mode in such a fashion. A press release says that the game's prologue and eight episodes work as a season that tell a collectively bigger narrative, while each episode will focus on a self-contained story about the game's 25 characters.
'Battleborn' seduced me with arcade spirit and role-playing style
Battleborn looked like it would be my kryptonite. When Gearbox Software showed the game to a group of reporters at a pre-E3 event, the roster of 25 characters looked like League of Legends clones, all of them clashing like a teenage anime enthusiast's backup Tumblr. That the studio emphasized a 5-vs.-5 competitive mode, where players would hit and shoot each other in online matches, only further entrenched its cosmetic similarity to that game. What's more, Gearbox promised that playing Battleborn would be all about the "ding" moment, when you level up your character in each match; again just like League of Legends. All those signifiers on top of a name that made it sound like an off-brand He-Man playset, and Battleborn came off like everything I detest about modern gaming. Then I played a co-operative story mission with four other people and never wanted to stop.
'Battleborn' has the trappings of a modern shooter and more
The folks at Gearbox Software want you to know a few things about Battleborn, the incredibly colorful "hero shooter" ahead of its grand showing at E3 in a few weeks. Why? Probably so it can expand upon the following details and/or show off even more stuff in Los Angeles. Let's get down to business. First up, the game has a story mode that you can play solo or co-op -- either split-screen or online, with replayability encouraged so you can go back for better loot when the mood strikes. There's also some 25 playable characters, all with different abilities, armaments and personalities according to a press release. Of course, there's multiplayer as well, which is where the MOBA-inspirations perhaps show through strongest.
Joystiq Weekly: Sony financials, Destiny review, Minecraft sale and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. What would you do with $2.5 billion? Sure, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson isn't pocketing the entire sum from Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, but something tells us he'll uh, be okay for a few years. Unless you're keen on buying small nations and playing a real-world game of Risk, it's tough to imagine spending your share of a massive buyout like that. There was loads more to this week than business deals involving yacht-sized bags of money, though. There's hope for a playable taste of Final Fantasy 15 in 2015, reviews for Destiny, Hyrule Warriors, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, a full timeline of Minecraft's progress from day one and loads more, all awaiting you after the break!
Battleborn engages cooperative gameplay trailer
Here's about 15 minutes of Borderlands developer Gearbox's "friendly shooter" Battleborn. The trailer takes its time showing off the different attacks and skills of the characters. The game is expected to launch on Xbox One, PS4 and PC in 2015.
Battleborn and the rise of the friendly shooter
"We are absolutely, deliberately targeting the idea that we want a game that people can just pick up and play," says John Mulkey, design director on Gearbox's new shooter, Battleborn (PS4, Xbox One, PC). His team's latest design, which favors collaboration, community input and a heavy focus on testing and tuning, couldn't be more different from the cult classic he built levels for – years ago. Just how much community input and playtesting went into No One Lives Forever anyway, I ask Mulkey. "Oh, god," he says, briefly thrust back into a previous life. "None." Propelled chiefly by the strength of its clever vision, a game like No One Lives Forever seems to be an outlier now. It was a game made without a steady stream of analytics, feedback and pushback, though meant to be consumed more succinctly, and for what was then a much smaller audience. "A game like this, we hope, it's not just this game that hits and fades away," says Scott Kester, the man in charge of Battleborn's look. "We want this to go. We want to keep making it."
Battleborn melds the MOBA with a first-person perspective
Challenging the notion that all MOBAs must be played from an omniscient isometric viewpoint, Gearbox revealed its own MOBA, Battleborn, that takes place from a first-person perspective. Battleborn promises a wide array of character variety as heroes battle on an alien planet, including Elvish archers, steampunk riflemen, and minigun-toting heavies. The lore hook is pretty solid, too, with the good guys fighting to protect the very last star in the universe against a faction called the Varelsi. The MOBA will feature both a co-op campaign and multiplayer PvP mode, and will be coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC next year. You can check out the reveal trailer after the break.
Borderlands studio mixes MOBA and FPS in Battleborn
Battleborn is a brand-spanking new IP from Gearbox Software (the Borderlands people), published by 2K Games and due out for Xbox One, PS4 and PC by March 31, 2016. Battleborn is a first-person arena shooter with cooperative narrative and competitive multiplayer modes, all set in a futuristic, sci-fi fantasy world. A team of diverse warriors are tasked with defeating a consuming, evil force in order to save the universe's last star. "If Borderlands 2 is a shooter-looter, Battleborn is a hero-shooter," Gearbox President Randy Pitchford said in a press release. "As a genre-fused, hobby-grade, co-operative and competitive FPS exploding with eye-popping style and an imaginative universe, Battleborn is the most ambitious video game that Gearbox has ever created." According to the Battleborn Facebook page, the game is due out in 2015, though the press release is more conservative, placing the due date any time before March 31, 2016, during Take-Two's fiscal year 2016. Get a little more information on the main Battleborn site. [Image: 2K Games]
