Death of a Game: Battleborn

Look kids, a magic trick!
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#DOAG . Death of a Game is a series dedicated to uncovering the mysteries surrounding the death of a game or company. nerdSlayer defines the term "death" in the context of the show as either... 1. Literally dead. 2. Had a mass exodus of players and never recovered (expectations etc). 3. The company ceased to exist. We follow a timeline of events, to uncover clues concerning why a game or company doesn't do well, and attempt to put it all together at the end for a deduction explaining how or why the game failed based on the evidence gathered.

[@TheDoctorThrax]

"Next Case" It's Heroes of the Storm isn't it.

[@sms1655]

evolve 100%

[@leolarose2099]

This comment got pinned

[@alucardvigilatedismas2868]

Maybe it's to throw us off of the scent; my money's on Life of a Game: Hello Kitty Online

[@theragequitter910]

Evolve

[@galacticdino]

It is heroes of the storm, N.S. uses the phrase of Raynor from the trailer

[@rasmusdegn9690]

My favorite way i've heard Randy Pitchford described is: "He's basically a lost It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia character"

[@patrickdmuzangi9639]

I have always referred to him as "Rusty Pitchfork"

[@stylesrj]

@@patrickdmuzangi9639 Randy Bitchford. Jim Sterling has a real hard-on for him.

[@patrickdmuzangi9639]

@@stylesrj Oh definitely, ricardo pitchio is another favourite

[@timbow1833]

@@stylesrj i can imagine Jim Sterling locking Randy in a room and slowly walking towards him while Randy stands there terrified. ''i hear you are telling people i have a hard-on for you little Randy boy, and despite all the shit that comes out of your pretty little mouth, you actually told the truth for once, and now i'm going to do something about said harad-on''

[@stylesrj]

@@timbow1833 Then a wrestling match follows as Jim dresses up as Sterdust and forces Randy into a Boglin outfit. Or dresses him up as a pog...

[@DammitSinged]

_Let's be honest here, Overwatch won because they had better porn._

[@olivierluisin1790]

You speak the language of gods

[@anon9579]

We all spank it to Widowmaker

[@uDave247]

It's a well known secret that porn drives the tech industry, why wouldn't it drive games too?

[@Cruddyhorse]

Yeah but did Blizzard endorse it like Randy did?

[@JABRIEL251]

@@anon9579 I understood that reference.

[@gmanthewinner]

Still miss Battleborn. Really wish they made it so you could still play single-player/bot modes. Had so much fun doing that

[@chadkearbey6007]

No trolling. Bought both Battleborn and Overwatch when they first came out. Played the hell out of Battleborn. I loved it.

[@garrettwade1294]

It's still my favorite shooter to this day. RIP battleborn

[@pkslush]

the single player was so fun, especially in couch coop!

[@_ANDRE.]

@Video Game Donkey In all onesty. Battleborn was the best game i ever played, in terms of gameplay and lore.

[@theshadowman8801]

@Video Game Donkey it was a good game for grinding

[@KohlKovet]

I loved that game so fucking much AMBRA FOREVER

[@SangoProductions213]

It's crazy how the timeline of incidents just seems so distorted from reality. I feels like just a year or two ago that Overwatch launched, but I also remember Total Biscuit trying to defend Battleborn from comparisons to it. It feels like it's been such an eternity of time without him.

[@anon9579]

May he R.I.P

[@stryke-jn3kv]

Honnestly I think TB succumbed to one of this own tenets which he absolutely crucified Borderlands 2 for. Just because you're having a lot of fun with your friends does not actually make for a good game. Especially given what they were streaming looked awful to a lot of viewers.

[@SangoProductions213]

@@stryke-jn3kv that is a misrepresentation of what he said. He said that every game is more fun with friends, and that doesn't mean it's a good multiplayer game. He then follows it up by stating how no mechanics in Borderlands actually interact.

[@angyem]

man, i was just thinking about him the other day, and same had a thought that it feels like it was yesterday

[@kyotheman69]

we lost great gamer news outlet, TB will always be missed

[@akba666]

Come on, Randy is not polarizing. He's just generally disliked.

[@planescaped]

@Moist Tony He's an egocentric, self-aggrandizing, tasteless manchild who runs a company and does *all* the things one would think such a person might do.

[@TDOTCRFH4]

"polarizing" is often just a diplomatic way to say "hated" it's rarely actually used to mean polarizing

[@Alexwesker7]

Look what happened to alien colonial marines so bad

[@chemergency]

He's got a shitty, egotistical personality and he grossly mishandles the Duke Nukem IP while also holding early historical builds of DNF hostage.

[@bloodondope]

@@chemergency as well as the aliens IP.

[@omnithewolf3628]

I was a die hard battle born player. I knew this video was coming, but it’s still sad to see. Ima go cry

[@YourCrazyDolphin]

21:30 Reminds me of the Bowsette meme, which rose Nintendo's stocks more than the actual trailer that spawned it.

[@Larry]

This and LawBreakers were really in a perfect storm of bad timing to release a game.

[@Exigentable]

Oversaturation of live services is at fault. Gearbox is stupid for not seeing the writing on the wall, I have no sympathy for Randy Diddleford.

[@fuyahanabi1304]

@jocaguz18 Being a company doesn't really matter. Artists and developers just get their regular paychecks whether or not the project they worked on succeeds or fails. It's the CEO and the higher ups on the board that lose their credits from a failed product.

[@fuyahanabi1304]

@jocaguz18 lol wow way to jump to conclusion. ok dude whatever. I didn't say anything against the creators. Read again. The person hating on Randy was the other reply. I'm just stating the obvious and realism here. Nobody wants any "win" or whatever you've fully convinced yourself over with, but go on stir up the drama. Plus Battleborn has A LOT of other problems unrelated to its CEO but seeing you being riled up over this little thing I'd just gonna head out. Bye.

[@chloepechlaner7806]

Its not even bad timing on their (at least Battleborn's) part. It was intentionally good timing on Blizzards part; they purpousefully neutered the other games because they had the money and leverage to do so.

[@RunehearthCL]

Titanfall 2 too, it was so rough that the game was abandoned by the devs, meanwhile tf1 got some expansions

[@alie_rose]

Good news everyone! You're able to play Battleborn via the PC with some limitations. The news comes from the official Battleborn discord server. More info in there and how it's possible :D

[@chocoloutre]

I agree, already streamed +4hrs on it like other fans :D

[@alxlima]

What saddens me it's that Battleborn has an awesome roster that I don't know if we'll ever see again

[@dupdig]

I'll be honest. I went all these years not knowing Battleborn wasn't a hero shooter. This video was the first time I heard of it having pve or being a moba

[@spiritwildfiregaming1975]

O _ O I bought the game for the PvE...

[@battlecast9202]

@@spiritwildfiregaming1975 same

[@Larry]

My favorite story out of this was Randy Pitchford was so desperate to keep Battleborn relevant, he was endorsing Rule 34 art of the characters on Reddit, only for the room to be filled up with Rule 34 art of Overwatch :P Also, just noticed Furious 4 and Battleborn both have a heavy called Montana. I wonder if there was supposed to be some sort of connected lore/shared universe there.

[@NeflewitzInc]

I mean I'm working on a little game and if anyone ever wanted to draw R34 of the characters I would totally love it.

[@SpaceManRD]

Rule 34 is like a fart; you can't force it or it'll just be weird and awkward for everyone involved. Case in point.

[@Bizargh]

I believe it was said that character Montana was very much salvaged from Furious 4 (I would not be able to relocate the source(s) on that though, but I recall it being Gearbox staff making that mention). And something tells me the moderators for that Subreddit were not happy with Randy's referral to it either, least of all what artists were just trying to draw their smut in peace as there were also memes & mockery directed at Randy on top of the aforementioned spam, if not for some time after (I did check for Randy's Tweet back in 2018 when writing a personal Steam review for the game & it was indeed still there, with reason to believe it still remains & that the Subreddit was able to carry on as usual even if I doubt much activity occurred there).

[@vicgc96]

Pitchfork and Blezinsky, two main reasons why Tf2 hasn't died.

[@loathbringer]

I’m so pissed that randy is the dude who owns the rights to duke Nukem

[@Listoric]

I'm really sad that Battleborn was a failure, it's standard moba mode was actually quite fun and I really enjoyed the beta. But just like everyone else, if you compare it to overwatch as a hero shooter, and that was the angle they took early on and stuck with it, it was just not good enough. Battleborn should have taken the Smite route, being f2p with 25€ for all heroes, with advertising as the first AAA fps moba, and it would have found it's audience.

[@Yogizilla]

100% this. That said, the gunplay felt good.. but competing with Overwatch was unfortunate. They should have gotten away from that fast!

[@NoahDaArk]

@@Yogizilla Unfortunately Randy Pitchford is an idiot and is just begging to be punched in the face

[@A1phaz0ne]

Its so unbelieveably stupid that this game was compared to Overwatch. That's like comparing League of Legends to Team Fortress 2. This game deserved to succeed, it was so fun, man.

[@loathbringer]

The fact that my brain did that thing where I heard the name Randy Pitchford and immediately let out an audible “ugh” without even fully processing a thought on him, says quite a bit about him

[@mauythai4585]

This was...tragic. Tragic is the only word I have for battleborn.

[@NoOne-fe3gc]

agree, it is a tragedy that it didn't flopped harder and brankrupted the company with it

[@juliankiz]

I've got one: Hilarious.

[@soloqueuepixy]

Even with Randy Pitchford at the helm, it's hard not to feel bad for all the devs who just want to make games or collect a paycheck. They have to watch something they personally worked on for years get mocked for being stuck with Randy.

[@glitchas4593]

@@NoOne-fe3gc Jeez, you must be such a fun person!

[@chikarasu7760]

This game was dead in the moment it was released. Why do a Beta Test and not even fix one Bug or Ballanceissue that were anounced by the players. And the Ingamestore was the Funeral at the End ignoring still the most Problems of the game.

[@midnightanimal4598]

Randy might not be a good salesman, but he is a great magician. He made the money meant for Colonial Marines vanish and he made Battleborne's playerbase disappear.

[@Yogizilla]

LMAO!!

[@christiamcruz7454]

Lol... good one bro

[@spiritwildfiregaming1975]

I remember watching the trailer every night before the release for a month. I loved the style so much. I even bought it for the Singleplayer and the Characters/Universe, not the Multiplayer. So I loved the game. I got the achievement "Master of Phoebe", even with almost dead PvP. Every time I want to relax I just start the first mission The Algorithm (I've replayed that mission more than 50 times, no joke). I just love that damn thing. It's sad that I won't be able to play the Singleplayer after 2021, but at least it was fun. And hey, if I ever get the chance, I'll probably reference the game in one way or another.

[@brentrichardsen7439]

I would've gotten master of Isaac, but nobody was willing to play Kleese/Kreese/floating chair guy, even on split screen co-op

[@spiritwildfiregaming1975]

@@brentrichardsen7439 Ouch. He may not be as fun as most other characters, but they should've at least helped you with that achievement...I think.

[@richardpignataro211]

@@brentrichardsen7439 Zamn I was a floating chair guy main for a bit lol

[@sam-lg2lh]

Today it died officially

[@eldeano9964]

F

[@thepassingstatic6268]

*pours one out* RIP. Such a shame, and a lesson in how timing/marketing are CRUCIAL in a games success, and failure

[@joshuabennett6656]

I just now realized he has all his different series of his channel as signs on the building in the intro

[@Exigentable]

Props to the editors too, it elevates this series. Great production values here all around.

[@Calvin_Coolage]

This is probably the first one of these that is *really* gonna hurt me. I liked Battleborn a lot and to this day I think it's a much more fun experience than it's supposed rival Overwatch. It's a very neat take on MOBA's that I don't think we'll ever see again. At the very least I got a doofy looking figurine out of my pre-order.

[@FlameJackstar]

I feel you, man. :(

[@splinter4161]

I played the fuuuuck out of Pendles, Shayne (and Aurox) and the main gurl herself, Thorne!!

[@Calvin_Coolage]

@@splinter4161 I always liked Oscar Mike, Rath and Caldarius the most.

[@splinter4161]

@@Calvin_Coolage So many cool ass characters, all gone now. It sucks. There was this chick with a Sword and Shield too! Can't remember her name, but shiiiiiiit I loved her too.

[@ciary]

I really loved phoebe. So sad to see that all those great characters are lost and will never be seen again. I would still buy a phoebe figurine if I could find one. she just looks rad!

[@0oidiedinatimemachineo024]

0:14 lmao holy shit I just KNEW Randy Pitchford was the type of guy who'd pull out an acoustic guitar in the middle of a party and start singing

[@Neumonics429]

Say what you will about Cliff, but I never felt like he was trying to piss on my head and tell me its raining. Infact he would often own up to his own failings.

[@justbear9641]

"So Battleborn is a MOBA ?" Randy Pitchford: Well yes but actually no.

[@Indigo_Gaming]

Featured Game on the KZbin video: Overwatch. Ouch, baby. Really ouch.

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

The unintentional dagger

[@SporianSummit]

Then overwatch tried to fight with tf2, forcing itself to get a sequel to try to stay relevant. Now i barely see anything about overwatch but alot of tf2 stuff.

[@SporianSummit]

@@AniGaAG thing is though, tf2 is more profound and memorable than overwatch but its still alive. also overwatch 2 is gonna be garbage, i know it.

[@SporianSummit]

@@AniGaAG but tf2 is infact memorable unlike overwatch, therefore both arguments are true. do you not read?

[@SporianSummit]

@@AniGaAG actually i do, you clearly acted like every game is for trends and thats it. nice try kid, it aint gonna work like that.

[@kierany9]

"Let's try and compete with Overwatch" really is becoming a bit of a pattern in these videos isn't it.

[@thepassingstatic6268]

But why? Like, they saw how much marketing and hype was behind OW, right? The hubris. The sheer hubris.....

[@NoahDaArk]

@@thepassingstatic6268 The same reason we haven’t gotten a new Duke Nukem game in a looooong time… *turns on Civvie11 clip* Randy…!

[@A1phaz0ne]

@@thepassingstatic6268 And it wasn't even the same genre as OW. Its like DOTA trying to compete with Team Fortress 2. Like, what. You're not even the same kind of games man lol

[@mcbrahs7190]

It's either that or "and then World of Warcraft came out, and things went bad"

[@youtube-kit9450]

"Let's try and compete with Overwatch (Hero shooter), WoW (MMO), Destiny (Looter Shooter) or fortnite (BR" is like 80% of "death of a game" in a nutshell.

[@loathbringer]

Every time I see randy I am filled with indescribable rage

[@TheShadowInTheMask]

It's really sad this game was so fun at the time. Would sit with my buddies for hours honing our skills with fav characters was a good time. T-T

[@TheShadowInTheMask]

@frank grimes hot take maestro

[@TheSolitarysun]

I logged probably 1.8k hours on this picking up almost every character, playing every day after work. Never did manage to figure out Gali or Thorn. Good times, man.

[@johnbiff2664]

Yeah, as one of the few long time Battleborn players, I can say with certainty that its death was no mystery to anyone. Battleborn probably had just about every conceivable problem a game could have throughout its short lifespan. Very poorly and confusingly advertised, incredibly tough competition and poor launch dates relative to said competition, overly priced (mostly in comparison to competition), required grinding and character unlocking at launch despite being full priced, very unwelcoming to newcomers, very poorly balanced at the beginning with relatively slow response to balance issues, broken matchmaking (which combined with rapidly declining players actually made finding a match super difficult almost immediately), poorly designed maps with cheesable objectives (eventually fixed tho), poor pc optimization for many maps, many somewhat unfun and heavily snowbally modes, poorly balanced gear system, art style+particle spam could make matches very confusing and hurt people’s eyes and make it hard to know what is going on at any time, long matches that took a lot of time investment plagued with people leaving matches with no penalty, poorly balanced early story missions that were unnecessarily difficult, R A N D Y P I T C H F O R D, and yeah basically the list just goes on. Despite all this I still can’t help but like it though, and I think the balance eventually reached a nice state. Its unique blend of fps and moba is an experience I can’t find anywhere else and I hope that a spiritual successor of some sort manages to be more successful eventually.

[@SageRuffin]

Regarding "unwelcoming to newcomers", I remember many threads asking Day1 players to have mercy on the newer players. I got into a lot of, erm... disagreements about people holding back in PvP. Crazy times, I tell ya.

[@johnbiff2664]

@@SageRuffin It can just be a somewhat confusing game to get into sometimes. The difference between veterans and new players can be pretty massive, and there's never been much of a middle ground between the two as soon as the population dipped. You either stack 5 vets into matchmaking and win every match or solo queue as a new player and lose every match. Vets coulda held back a bit sure but even then it gets to the point where you can gimp yourself as heavily as possible and people would still get stomped, and it wouldn't even be fun to play if you physically had to dumb down your playstyle, so what can ya even do. Game needed more population over a wider range of skill levels.

[@trevordavis6830]

That Sage Guy The hardcore community was one of the things that really killed my interest in the game. I could never really experiment with new characters in that game because I getting into matches with super toxic and competitive players who would keep telling me to uninstall the game because I didn’t know how to use characters(of which you couldn’t switch out of during the match) properly. It’s hard to enjoy a game when you can’t even learn how to play new characters without getting a volley of insults thrown at you.

[@trevordavis6830]

john biff I think what would have really helped the game is have a competitive and casual mode. That way the hardcore community who only cared about winning proper team comps wouldn’t have to deal with unskilled players, and more casual or new players who just wanted to have fun or practice wouldn’t have to deal with toxic hardcore players.

[@johnbiff2664]

Diedkid 145 Actually I’m pretty darn sure that early on they did make a split for a casual matchmaking option and a competitive matchmaking option. It got called out as a copy of what Overwatch was doing or something along those lines and never worked. And the population of the game was already too low to go splitting the matchmaking.

[@gregorybillings9458]

"battleborn biggest triple A flop" *Anthem and fallout HMB

[@deathmetalalchemist5861]

True, Bethesda and Bioware are far bigger names in the industry than GBX

[@unrelentingawesomeness7501]

@@deathmetalalchemist5861 Bethesda is the most expensive game company

[@weirdbro6597]

At least people talked about anthem and fallout. In case of battleborn it's just radio silence after a week release.

[@Brian-iz8fi]

Don't play 76 but I'm pretty sure it did not flop.

[@gregorybillings9458]

@@Brian-iz8fi it's numbers were bad and it sparked a class action lawsuit

[@deadmanstoolbox]

This has always bothered me, I really enjoyed Battleborn and everytime I brought it up everyone just joked about "Bad overwatch" Like it's not even a similar game. Good ass moba too

[@MoreImbaThanYou]

Just imagine Randy shutting his mouth and let the game actually be advertised as a MOBA - during a time, in wich MOBAs were quite hot. (Not they they aren't now, but the hype has settled down a bit.)

[@devinbaird2470]

Honestly that and they should've pivoted to Free to Play and gave people who spent $60 (me) access to all characters and maybe XP boosts could've saved the game. I truly loved this game and I'm worried that a shooter MOBA will never be a thing again.

[@MoreImbaThanYou]

@@HighLanderPonyYT To be honest, I still enjoy Dota a lot. And The International is one of my favorite weeks of the year.

[@jakeapplegate6642]

They were so desperate to not be put into a box by putting labels on it and insisted that it was completely new and unique that they wound up with an identity crisis. The lack of balancing and post launch support is what really killed it in the long run. It could have been an esport but they expected it to just become one all on its own without support.

[@TheGreyShaman]

MoreImbaThanYou to be honest I wouldn’t have gotten it knowing it was a moba, playing it and finding out it was a moba through gameplay didn’t turn me off though because I didn’t like mobas at the time and still don’t but this was the exception for me

[@gamersedge4867]

I don't think advertising it as a moba would've helped because being advertised as a fps people still saw hero shooter and with the launch of OW the hero shooter portion was even more apparent, turning free to play would have been the move to save the game because many of my friends were waiting for FTP including me and I would've spent the money for skins/heroes but the time never came and when it did I was so deep in Overwatch I didn't want to play it FTP was the move they needed to be even close to competitive to Overwatch

[@Nick-rc7il]

Video: watch a silly man slowly destroy any chances his game will do well

[@NoahDaArk]

Yeah… THANKS RANDY!!!

[@DodderingOldMan]

Ah, Battleborn. I personally consider it to be the most underrated game of the last decade. If they'd just focused more on the MOBA/Hero Shooter crossover and completely forgotten the single player stuff, it could have been my favourite game of the last decade as well. Hell, it almost still is, even though the length of time there was enough of a player base here in Australia to find a game was incredibly brief. I bear a grudge against everyone who tried to make it seem like you had to choose between Overwatch and Battleborn. They were so different.

[@keionjg9627]

Titanfall 2 was super underrated too

[@DodderingOldMan]

@@keionjg9627 It was, yeah, to some extent. Certainly it was a brilliant game. But unlike Battleborn, pretty much everyone who played Titanfall 2 agreed it was very good. It just didn't get enough people playing it. That said, it still had a much healthier online population than Battleborn.

[@keionjg9627]

DodderingOldMan yeah I’d be playing battle born right now if it had more players it was the best league of legends type game on console. The only thing I didn’t like were some of the weak characters and one map on the spider mech mode

[@magister1530]

I chose Paladins

[@dubbsyubbsy9815]

Man this video came out right on time, I’ve been missing Battleborn a ton recently. Yes of course it wasn’t perfect and had loads of issues, but it was so unique and there is no other game like it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Bleeding Edge scratches a similar itch next month.

[@toastertastic5085]

So about Bleeding Edge...

[@despairfollows591]

@@toastertastic5085 bahahahahaa

[@una-mura]

Death of a Game: Bleeding Edge lol

[@nilzero5686]

"Battleborn scored a 69 out of a hundred on metacritic" nice

[@sebastianvizcaya5775]

69 likes. Nice

[@charlieclements1111]

Noice

[@Slenderguy56]

Randy saw that Metascore, and that's why he mentioned the porn.

[@TheeOK1]

769. Nice

[@HopexWinter]

I really enjoyed battleborn, even though i think Randy Pitchford is a terrible person, I am sad the game died

[@epicrabid1857]

@Brainjock 1 thing he did was delay the f2p for so long, which if done earlier could've saved the game.

[@rangedfire8179]

Me two i loved this game and wanted a sequel.

[@darthmisogyny3828]

@Brainjock ohhh boy

[@Giliver]

@Brainjock man have you been living under a rock.

[@Giliver]

@Brainjock well the list is too long.

[@OnimaruAnji]

Way late comment but, let's not also forget that there was a DESPERATE attempt they were making to tie Battleborn into the Borderland's Universe, either an 'elseworlds' or parallel dimension, I remember the Reddit post from one of the guys who got fired when Battleborn started to tank. Gist of it was like this : The whole 'Devourer of Stars' the Destroyer, that Tyreen was supposed to unleash/fail to become. THAT is the 'entity' from the 'other Universe' that you were fighting against in Battleborn, sort of a 'this is the future if you lose' kind of tie in. The Destroyer consumed all the Stars in your Dimension when you didn't stop it, and now it went after Another, aka the Battleborn Universe. However, when Battleborn TANKED, they no longer wanted their 'Flagship Series' to be narratively tied to the Failed Battleborn, thus all the little story Easter Eggs that was supposed to be part of the story, basically time traveling 'echoes' to warn you, and help guide you to victory, because 'historically' you were supposed to lose... So they had the maps already programmed with these 'exposition' points but now had nothing to put there, so what did we get? The suddenly MASSIVELY IMPORTANT CHARACTER, the one EVERY Vault Hunter EVER has idolized, but never mentioned before, Typhon DeLeon's Echo Recording points.... And basically the whole story had to get overhauled. The Cult of the Vault wanting to unleash the Destroyer, became the Children of the Vault with the 'Twin Gods' somehow being more capable than everything before with their infinite bullshit..... I mean come on, you played the game.... The story was so fucking shit, SOO shit, and this is why, because half way through development, they had to rewrite the story. And as a result this fun but mediocre game caused the sometimes flawed but amazing Borderlands Series, instead of ending with a Bang, end with a wet fart.... Shame, real shame.

[@SifrinCrusader]

I actually had to sign into youtube to comment how much I both loved the coop, story, and characters. Heck even the multiplayer I picked up often and I'm not a pvp kind of person. It tears my heart open everytime I hear about it and desperately wish for some kind of offline/lan patch.

[@SifrinCrusader]

Just found a rough hack for the game that lets you play the PvE story missions & DLC missions, but can't play through the other variations of any missions. Created by gwog a month ago in the unofficial battleborn discord run by Chromero!

[@primmtravels450]

I've always wondered about this game, sure happened quickly didn't it! Also just realised this is probably the last game you will talk about which TB criticised.

[@tnecniw]

*Salutes the mention of the cynical brit*

[@planescaped]

I still miss TB.

[@GatorRay]

RIP the Cynical Brit. I still miss him.

[@primmtravels450]

@@GatorRay Same.

[@alejandrojoserodriguezarre45]

We lost one of our greatest when we lost TB

[@NotTheAverageGamerz]

I remember when this game came out ( I bought it ) and I went on vacation for 2 weeks and when I came back it was dead and Overwatch had just released and everyone was playing that instead .

[@skthechef8075]

Feelsbadman

[@Tuggieman]

After hearing the news from OW2’s cancelled pve content, it made me think of Battleborn, and all of the content it had upon release. Which made me look for vids on KZbin. Every video discussing the “death” of this game all has similar comments. People missing the game, that it was fun or amazing, myself feeling the same. Can’t help but imagine if it was re-released, how well would the game do now. I believe it would be an awesome move to turn the servers back on in response to the recent news.

[@harelipnirnroots897]

This DoaG was really good. I've been watching these from the beginning, really like them. The quality of your vids is very good.

[@Skullybot]

Remember that one time this channel is one of the few S tier channels on youtube but still somehow has not hit 1 million subs? Cause i do. Long live Nerdslayer!! I never actually played battleborn And i’m pretty sure the reason why was because all of my friends just played overwatch instead. Wrong time for it i think, but i also can’t really say, as i STILL have never tried it.

[@Exigentable]

Meh, you didnt miss anything. It was okay. Not good enough to warrant more than a few hrs of your time or attention. If it was f2p, maybe it woulda attracted players.

[@Inzaneamaru]

It probably has to do with the lack of constant video uploads. Sadly we live in an age of quantity over quality...

[@JoshuaBojangles]

This one hurts man. I really wish Battleborn could've managed to steal a decent audience. The first couple weeks after launch were some of the most fun I've had in my 20 some odd years of gaming

[@TheGreatMoonFrog]

Why did you stop playing then? Not harping, I'm just genuinely curious why the playerbase it did garner seemed to drop off so quickly.

[@JoshuaBojangles]

@@TheGreatMoonFrog The playerbase dropped off the face the earth. It's just kinda what happens when uninformed consumers go in expecting either a)A borderlands-esque experience or b) shittier overwatch. It wasnt terribly exciting waiting in incredibly long queues to either get completely shit stomped by one of the few "pro" teams that were floating around or completely annihilating some poor randoms who had no idea how moba mechanics work. The population for balanced, enjoyable matches just wasn't there anymore. It didnt help that the few loyal players we had were spread thinly across 3 platforms. Maybe if the free2play transition was also accompanied by some cross play functionality we might've been able to sustain a healthy enough population, but alas

[@baklazan777]

@@TheGreatMoonFrog As someone with similar feelings of love for the game, it's because other people stopped playing. I remember after like 2-3 months I'd queue up and watch 20 minute episode shows on the other screen, I stopped playing regularly when it reached 3 episodes, over an hour, to get into a game that'd end in like 5-15 minutes, especially that I played the game so much that I would be considered "pro" as in the previous comment(I really, REALLY no lifed the game when it launched), being in a team helped sometimes but finding people who still consistently wanted to play was also frustrating. For the last week or two of me playing the game I was mostly farming the character challenges to unlock their legendary unique gear and achievements, which in most cases was dogshit, but I just wanted to 100% the game, but I left when I realized how horseshit Toby's last one was(before it was changed but I was long gone) I even tried going back to the game a couple of times but each time finding a match was just impossible so I just did a few pve missions for kicks but those get boring fast.

[@Irraptured]

lel

[@JYMBO]

I think the reason he tried to steer away from the MOBA thing was because people don't pay £60 for MOBA games, since he realized the game wasn't going to be free like every other MOBA on the market he had to start calling it something else

[@owenlee7146]

Tbh how many games was killed by ow in your" Death of a game "list start from lawbreakers

[@Kalo_]

I loved this game, appreciate you doing the research on it. There's a story buried in there about Varnell (the other Randy) battling Pitchford's self destructive tendencies by being extremely active with the community, and the game a lot of the devs got moved to was actually another PvP game that never saw the light of day.

[@AirshipFury]

Kudos to you man, you managed to use so many beautiful and flowery words to describe the sewage elemental that is Randy.

[@wizgi7201]

Im gonna miss this game Its one of my favorites I love the characters as well, and unlockling more backstory for the characters by completeting challenges for them

[@chrismassey9892]

Who The F Asked You Nobody So Shut Up

[@jeefberky9101]

Battleborn was a real kick in the ass for me, I adored most of the art they had, it looked so creative and fun, like the designers had a field day, but there was so little cohesion with it in so many aspects that whenever I looked at gameplay I could barely tell what the hell was happening

[@gazashotshell9099]

As a frequent player of Battleborn, I appreciate the thorough nature of your video and the publicity the game is getting as a whole since its being shut down, seeing channels cover its demise feels like a bunch of strangers meeting at a funeral for the town drunk but in like a good way, you didnt know him that well but heard his name once or twice and have no real reason to hate him, so you show up to the memorial out of respect because he still deserves to be remembered in some way, his dad Randy sure as shit isnt going to attend with any dignity. I'll admit i loved battleborn purely for the story missions due to the fact that certain pieces of Dialogue would change each time you played and the minion enemies where really fun to beat up with the melee combat. Battleborn has the most satisfying robot destruction and melee of any game ive ever played, I cannot find anything as casually fun and relaxing as tearing apart those clankers with Attikus or Aurox. (P.S. If anybody can suggest story games with really good first person Melee please give me something. Ive gotten so used to it being my stress ball of sorts and I need something close to fill that niche)

[@gazashotshell9099]

@DerShrimp1 good suggestion but I've tried vermintide and the upgrade progression was really slow and wonky for me, I was looking at warhammer space-hulk because it's similar with better overall gameplay but I've also heard melee sucks due to localized limb damage. I'm also unsure if it's on Xbox one since I'm a filthy console peasant

[@malohn2068]

Could you look into Death of a game: Atlas Reactor next? that game was super unique but was shut down aswell. Such a shame

[@davidalechenu2175]

I just started watching so I dont know if you already do this but a "life of a game" series would be amazing probably gonna comment this on something more recent

[@Mrbloodygloomy]

i would like to see a Death of a Game: Battlerite

[@ryancory5958]

Battleborn is an amazing game, still have it installed wish i could play matches but its 2 dead. the Helix system and the gear that u can aquire in pve and use in pvp is a great addition, being able to customize ur characters is always welcome

[@ThrillSeekerVR]

One of my favorite series on KZbin flat out.

[@erementsuna]

Wow that "Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin" clip at the beginning took me back to when I use to watch them back in the day. damn were does time go.

[@Txhop11]

I didn’t know you had a battleborn one too!!! I can’t wait to watch this

[@0blivius]

I’ve literally been thinking about you making this vid. Loved battleborn. Rip

[@0Wayland]

How is it possible that every single 'recent' hero shooter released virtually at the same time?

[@Halfort57]

@William Black Paladins was in Aplha state when Overwatch was first announced

[@LaEve]

Just discovered your channel. I gotta say, I love your content already. It's stylish, well-thought-out and there's Conan music!!!

[@momtom10]

I was in my second year of high school when this game came out, and I adored it. I bought this and overwatch and immediately told all my friends to not compare the two. I played it so much i 100% many of the characters. And I loved most if not all of the characters and their personalities. I spent hours having fun with my friends. I despise its downfall. I watched this video and got depressed thinking "what could have been". I didn't have a game i liked so much as this one when it came out. And it's safe to say that's rarely happened since. I miss this game so much, and if i ever wanted a game to have a remake/sequel this would be one of them. The other would probably be evolve (which i had a similar relationship to with battleborn).

[@destinyhunter6390]

That is how I feel

[@300IQPrower]

I still miss it. Even to just be able to replay the campaign I even went out of my way to pick up a physical copy when they announced the shutdown (by then only $5) just so I could at least own a copy

[@Deberry59]

I genuinely had a lot of fun with battleborn, sad it was heavily based on community play and came to a dead end

[@ShutterSpeedGaming]

The intro made me subscribe!! It gives me this 90s TV show vibes! Reminds me of “The Critic” TV show from back in the day lol

[@survivalhh2995]

4 months after this game came out I remember going to this store near me it’s a 5 dollars and below store and I remember going passed the electronics section there were tons of battleborn disks for ps4 and Xbox one lmao

[@jesserogalski1402]

At this point, I blame every weak point of Gearbox on Pitchford; every positive seen on the development team themselves. Purely out of merit, and because I can.

[@Exigentable]

I agree, Diddleford is incompetent and arrogant. Dude is a trainwreck.

[@imtoolazyforaprofilepic4961]

"Wait a minute, you genius!

[@allither6310]

im just going to put this here, i think i might be the biggest battleborn fan Batlleborn came out in a really great time in my life and i associate it with "the good days" i was always smiling when playing and it brought me closer to my friends and brother than i could have hoped for. Battleborn shutting down was devastating and when i watched this video i legitimately cried, i feel like the joy i have gained from this game is lost, its gone, the happiness of that point in my life is not stricken with stress and sadness from work and college. I know this is overreacting but i cant help it.

[@keabob9440]

This game was the most fun I’ve ever had in a game ever honestly so it makes me extremely sad to know I can’t play this anymore since the servers were killed :/ wrath was such an animal at getting kills with his ult

[@fiffe2243]

i have a recommendation of a game to you, it's "draw to death" it is yet again another competitive shooter, a third person one, with a really unique art style, and was supposed to be a big thing, it's a game from the dude behind god of war and twisted metal and for some reason was given for free at launch on the ps plus, i had some days of fun with it and then completely forgot about the game, and apparently the servers were shut down last year, that's it, and i really appreciate those videos, keep it up mah man

[@goosechaser13]

It died for many reasons, poor map design, the devs refused to listen to the community, and it was just super unbalanced

[@WalcomS7]

@@goosechaser13 I remember playing it at PAX for like 45 minutes just using a MInigun or something and nobody could stand a chance, nothing in the game was even close. It was an interesting game but when it launched I had other stuff to play so I didn't care.

[@Exigentable]

Yeah, was a shame to see. Jaffe is such a legend tho that even that game flopping hard didnt damage his goodwill with Sony

[@CMWick]

I tried playing like 2 months after it launched and I couldn't even find a game

[@-pressxtostart-]

@@Kaylakaze yeah i got all trophies

[@samuelxd7954]

I actually really enjoyed this game when it came out. Such a shame they couldn't make a proper free 2 play model. It might of saved it.

[@PonchoANS7]

Let's be honest, a good chunk of Overwatch's success is owed to coomers.

[@nephillim8641]

Ok buy Mei fine as hell

[@orionfire1947]

Remember when blizzard tried to shut down the coomers. That was a funny time.

[@TheeOK1]

@@orionfire1947 why tho? Any publicity is good publicity. I know a guy who only started playing final fantasy realm reborn because of the. . . "Parodies" of a certain character. The art of said material was so good he went to play the game to meet the character every artist and their mother was absolutely destroying. After beating the first part of the story he found out that the character was a PC (player character) that the player themself payed, and drew, p0rn for. He hasn't stopped playing since as the game itself is great, hard to pay attention to the lore in the beginning but when you do it's a good ride.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

@@TheeOK1 Yeah, you can't help what your first exposure to a game (or anything else) is, what's important is that people potentially interested in what it offers DO get exposed to it. You can't play a game that you don't know exists. Like it or not, porn, like any other fanart, is a way of the fans showing their love for it to other people, and it's a pretty terrible thing to do to your loving community to shut down however it is they express that love which effectively amount to positive word of mouth or otherwise just awareness for your game

[@code066funkinbird3]

Like what now? Damm Even youtuber like jacksepticeye and markiplier played overwatch

[@braydenb1581]

I absolutely loved this game. It's a shame the coop was so short. 4 buds and mine loved it

[@TheNegronomicon]

Niles: Whatever happened to the concept of "less is more?" Frasier: Ah, but if less is more, just think of how much more "more" will be!

[@imreplyingtothiscomment2378]

Nier and overwatch has almost the most non real porn on the internet

[@splinter4161]

I remember Overwatch being one of the top searches on Pornhub a few years ago.

[@majikku-chan]

Your sentence makes no sense tbh.

[@splinter4161]

@@majikku-chan They mean, that those two games have the most virtual porn on the internet. Out of pretty much any other cartoon other game.

[@almalone3282]

oh no that award goes to my little pony damn furries

[@splinter4161]

@@almalone3282 But when it comes to gaming porn tho. Can't believe I'm having a legit conversation about virtual porn, lmao

[@DesperadoBloo]

Kind of surprised this one wasn't covered sooner.

[@invisiblediscos9412]

Battleborn was the beginning of all the games I've loved the most all dying off. I miss this game so much. So many good friends, moments, and more.

[@Uwujarvis]

8:25 gigantic wasn't deserving of what happened to it. It still hurts me to this day what happened to jt

[@Giliver]

The only MOBA like games I've ever liked have all died. Gigantic, Paragon and Battleborne all died. Lol

[@cryw1092]

@@Giliver I didn't even find out about Gigantic until after it died, but I feel the same about the other two.

[@armintor2826]

Goddamn i loved gigantic...

[@wizgi7201]

I loved gigantic The art style was so unique

[@YouPooper]

Are you aware of Project Stamina?

[@Villyzp]

Detective Conan music in the end just hits the spot

[@chocoloutre]

Since some weeks, Batleborn's fans are active on social media, and a petition has emerged, and need all fan around the world to be sign and share. Even Jim Foronda, voice of Oscar Mike/Wiskey Foxtrot/ISIC sign it! And other people who worked on it missed the game to, even Randy Varnell (producer). If you're intersted to give a hand to the game, don't hesitate^^

[@johncleveland3924]

Battleborn joins my collection of 'games I wish I got into sooner' playing for only 2 months before it's cancellation was announced. Along with Wildstar and Rusty Hearts, Rest In Peace Battleborn.

[@dania3956]

I love mobas and I literally never knew this game was a moba till now. I would have played this for sure.

[@pierreo33]

Define "moba" "multiplayer online battle arena" isn't that literally every multiplayer game? you could say CS is a moba. it's just a stupid buzzword

[@the_batmonkey_7]

What if we all unite and revive it from its death before it totally dies?? Lmao

[@tommysuhlami6241]

U really missed out. Insane action. Very open maps with plenty of ledges to jump and change direction. It was one of the best games the last 10 years TO ME. It was my first moba experience and last tbh. Absolutely amazing. Never had lag. Skills always worked. No complaints. Genuinely a great experience

[@tommysuhlami6241]

The diversity in characters was insane. Their were 4 or 5 characters that had gun main meta and they allll were soooo drastically different. Foxtrot was an absolute animal to a high skilled player. Where oscar mike was just plain fun. Motana was my main, and trust me i was probably thee best motana player ever on that game (ps4)

[@jex-the-notebook-guy1002]

@@pierreo33 yay someone else with this oppinon. Another one is in this video, hero shooter. Here's some more roguelike/lite, soulslike, and metroidvania.

[@nebufabu]

21:30 Pitcford, to the board; "See? Magic squirting is totally relevant to the business!"

[@rommdan2716]

HAHA!! Oooh Randy.... * 80's Sitcom Music *

[@tempestvenator9809]

Man.... its been a whole year since the servers shut down. If only there were some way to make a fan server to revive it.

[@Captain1nsaneo]

6:25 SF's ult causing fear. Nice to see footage of dota used from the last year or two.

[@ectofriend]

"I wonder what Battleborn scored on the critic side of Metacritic." *Watches video* "Nice."

[@mechdonald7848]

im new to the channel, great content! and btw i think you should create an episode about how Evolve died.

[@Psyceps]

Battleborn is literally the only MOBA I enjoyed playing, I really hope we get a first person moba in the future

[@antoniom7194]

I was a Battleborn alpha tester. I absolutely loved this game in alpha phase. They made some changes to my favorite alpha character that I was not happy about, but overall it was fun

[@Movie_Games]

This game was awesome. It just needed many more maps.

[@cosmosofinfinity]

And just a couple years later, you would do a video for Overwatch... Pretty crazy, pretty scary

[@verguco6051]

well ow 2 will came out in two weeks at the moment im writting this, is ow 2 the same game as ow1? ow1 died or just got an update? ow 2 will die? im really worried, the free to play model seems the game is going to be monetizated up your ass

[@TiMonsor]

i d love to see the vid with the analysis of the whole field. ow, battleborn, quake ch, and my beloved LawBreakers

[@nerdSlayerstudioss]

Not a bad idea!

[@jmh8817]

Is this the introduction of the final deduction music? That was a masterstroke in hindsight, given how catchy and iconic it is.

[@jemster38]

Whenever I see BB gameplay, the first thing that comes to my mind is 'wtf is going on?' Everything's so garish, convoluted, and over the top that I feel too exhausted to play it even before I could start.

[@accursiusx13]

You missed out. The game was a blast.

[@jemster38]

@@accursiusx13 Oh I'm sure the game was exciting to play, but it's too over the top. Constant sensory overload isn't a good thing.

[@0smundSaddler]

You know in hindsight we really backed the wrong horse in the Battleborn/Overwatch race. Battleborn was actually really fun and the character design while less sexually appealing was more varied and creative.

[@3xchrisx3]

Not sure if the teaser was for Lost Planet 3 but if it's not you should definitely cover that game some day. Seemingly crushed the whole franchise

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Nice video. Keep up the good work.