Why Battleborn Was Always Doomed To Fail

Battleborn was Gearbox Software's take on the Hero Shooter genre that unfortunately never stood a chance. Some say it was always doomed to fail and others say direct competition with Overwatch was what did it in.
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[@elbs05]

I miss Battleborn had so much potential

[@Robinss0n]

Deadlock is the way

[@knightmareGS]

@@Robinss0n I'm pumped to play deadlock. Battleborn will be missed.

[@therandomgamer8107]

battleborn had a story mode pve pvp pvpve co-op and overwatch 2 killed overwatch 1 for a story mode and pve that never came. by the way there is a small battleborn revival call reborn project, but it only works in pve and solo for now, its still in development, and has plans to restore the game to its former glory.

[@ryancory5958]

also had skill trees and equipment

[@KrissFliss]

Awesome!

[@RecklesslyPessimistic]

​@@therandomgamer8107 And that didnt do anything to save it, maybe theres a lesson to be learned there, that PVE isnt actually what people who are interested in the PVP hero shooter genre want? Fact is you have PVP audiences and you have PVE audiences, ttying to make a game that appeals to both will just lead to a game that appeals to niether. The only people who really wanted PVE in OW were people who didn't actually play it. From day one OW was marketed as a PVP hero shooter, and everyone who wanted that plays and enjoys it. Fact is the way OW is designed was never going to be compatible with PVE.

[@jikito2609]

@@RecklesslyPessimistic it worked for TF2. Blizzard just didn’t bother.

[@RecklesslyPessimistic]

@@jikito2609 Oh yeah, the PVE mode thats basically an afterthought that people only play to get australium weapons. I really dont see how its much different in gameplay to OW's PVE modes.

[@chocoloutre]

Little update ^^ : Since november 12 2023, we can play on pc at least the pve in solo thank to a modder, who is working on bringing other features as multi back :D . It's not a full revival, but at least the game isn't totally dead anymore

[@BangBangLoko]

I really wanted this game to do well when it released....the DNA sequence mid game was so well done

[@TheRelentlessAssault]

Battleborn was the best action moba/team arena shooter made to date. The only reason overwatch beat it was developer recognition. Blizzard is a much more popular company. Battleborn was also a more complete game. Being a superior multiplayer experience as well as having a fully thought out single player experience.

[@DI_IDER]

With Giagntic coming back hopefully BATTLEBORN can come back it’s a better game in every single way. Although I have played both over the years on all platforms. Battleborn will always have a special place in my heart.

[@vrika4280]

At least on Steam, Gigantic already flop hard, and seems they didn't really care to actually revamp the game. I doubt it would be profitable to bring Battleborn back. I'm not a game economist, but there is more direct and indirect competition now with all the games as a service, it failed really bad, really quick, so there isn't a massive preexisting playerbase either, and I'm almost sure Deadlock is going to clap it like Overwatch did, no matter if it releases, before, during, or after.

[@yosemetysamuel2265]

Battleborn looked so cool. I couldn't play it even when it came out free because of my shitty laptop. But when I watched it on KZbin it seemed like such a good game. And dare I say the characters looked cooler than Overwatches.

[@Culturedknight]

I mean I played it honestly I'd say the game was and is way better then overwatch

[@TheReZisTLust]

I played and loved the game so much, I had a Shane & Aurox kill taunt clip as my channels main video lmao it should have never died.

[@boochaca7957]

the characters and abilities were all just way more fun, game just had too much going on for the average gamer.

[@slvrcobra1337]

They were cooler and had actual complete lore for all characters at launch.

[@vrika4280]

The world was more fantasy and whacky, so they had more room to play with the character design, I really liked a lot of them, others were really lackluster as well imo, but Overwatch has just a special pixar quality to their characters, they were just more memorable for me. I even played Battleborn more, and can't even remember half of the character's name, on the other hand, I can name every character from the original Overwatch. Gameplay wise, Overwatch was better imo, but Battleborn being a moba, had really interesting mechanics I really enjoyed. I do wish they would bring the game back, but don't think it would do well, so I'm hoping at least Deadlock is good and successful.

[@MentalMars]

Your video presentation was good, good editing, etc but I feel I got the general vibe video that others have made and only looked at the top layer of information and therefore made some wrong assumptions. The term "Hero Shooter" came from the 2K Games marketing team. Media outlets started to put other games under that same umbrella like Overwatch but also LawBreakers, which was actually an arena shooter. "THE TWEET" was to poke fun at a friendly rivalry but the social media team quickly found out that no one reads the second tweet that was attached to it. So the response to Overwatch dropping their beta on Battleborn's launch got totally misinterpreted. Blizzard spend a ton of money on (counter) advertising and 2K couldn't compete with that. When Battleborn was dropping a DLC, Overwatch would magically do a double XP event to keep players in their game. On paper, Battleborn had a lot more to offer. Overwatch 2 fans want PvE and skill trees things that Battleborn already had. Yes, Overwatch had smoother gameplay and all its heroes unlocked. Battleborn did do a big update that increased the performance and unlocked all the heroes, however, then folks didn't know which character they should play and sometimes picked a character with a more complex skill set. The Smash Bros-like unlock requirements were there to guide people by playing a straightforward and learning the general mechanics first. Announcement trailers often don't explain the game. They are a teaser and there to trigger curiosity as a follow up (gameplay) trailer - which often released a few days/weeks later - explains what the game is about. You see this all the time and isn't a sign of "You started on the wrong foot". I get the 1st and 3rd person shooter comment but extraction shooters and battle royale games - as we know today - weren't around back then.

[@5persondude]

Randy Pitchford snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

[@distructorage]

This game was to early for its time. My prediction is that the new hero shooter valve is making is going to look a lot like batleborn.maybe.

[@Culturedknight]

Honestly I loved the game and hated how it died so fast I remember playing the beta and absolutely falling in love with the game play but then finding a match started getting slower and harder to find so I couldn't play it anymore this really frustrated me but honestly I hope they remaster the game and lunch it again overwatch is kinda trash right now and I think people would definitely give it a try now and actually give it a chance but that's less likely to happen heh at least it had a story mode 😅

[@bopsie55]

Well, with the rebirth of both paragon and gigantic, there wouldn't be a better time to relaunch it

[@Scyclo]

BB had a pretty fun story mode, and the cool thing is it was promised as part of the launch and it launched with the game. Unlike a certain other game that has since said nah we aren't adding the WHOLE POINT OF THE 2 AT THE END

[@Culturedknight]

@@Scyclo honestly hope gearbox decide to relaunch the game free to play pretty sure more people would play it now

[@Battz]

​@@bopsie55 and both of those games are completely dead lol

[@sleepygryph]

The MM for BB was pretty bad too, as a moba team comp was very important and there were no clues or prompts telling you what your team needed and what heroes fill what role, which could lead to some really unbalanced matches and rage quitting which made that even worse

[@bananas3841]

My only experience with Battleborn was through one of those popular early 2010's monthly subscription boxes, I think Nerd Box is what it was callee. One of my boxes came with a pack of Battleborn character pins, but they were simply round buttons with images of some of the heroes (I remember one being that dapper robot guy) Those pins should've been a sign

[@Guldfisken90]

I still take Battleborn over Overwatch anyday

[@beezy.gaming]

i remember one of my moms friends worked at the place where they made battleborn and i played with her once, was pretty fun, i remember she played the water girl

[@krodmandoon3479]

Gearbox?

[@tyreidliar6745]

Even the reviews for the re-released gigantic are filled with people demanding for the return of battleborn

[@boochaca7957]

was hopeful because gearbox owned gigantic when they started that, but the take 2 just bought gearbox and left gigantic with suicidal Embracer, so it's looking a bit grim now for BB

[@Cobble01]

Overwatch’s open beta was May 3rd, the same day Battleborn launched

[@krodmandoon3479]

Yes, that *is* mentioned in the video. Good job!

[@Cobble01]

@@krodmandoon3479 No, in the video he says the open beta was March 3rd. I’m correcting him.

[@HansoMo]

History repeats itself.

[@snaggyak]

Weird that I never heard this game 😂

[@krodmandoon3479]

Not weird at all. It announced itself as direct competition to Overwatch, charged almost 100 USD to have access to all the content at launch, was wildly mismanaged, and shut down within a month.

[@RogueLover1996]

Needs a Revival tbh, With the Bad State of Overwatch i can see it making a comeback

[@WAR904]

Pre ordered this at GameStop for ps4, still remember picking it up launch day and playing the campaign in practically one sitting, good times. I actually still have the figure that came with my pre order on my shelf, they were kind of like blind bags, I got the Rath one ( yes I had to look up the name)……………..kinda sad thinking about all this.

[@IOSALive]

JustSaySteven, I subscribed because your videos are super cool!

[@kusolp544]

overwatch just dominates the hero shooter genre without great competition. tf2 is well....breathing? a bit. paladins is a buggy unbalanced mess and well thats it

[@verguco6051]

overwatch is basically on a race of one man and somehow is losing

[@kusolp544]

@@verguco6051 it cant lose that way

[@BiggusWeeabus]

In a better timeline, Battleborn got big popular and Overwatch failed

[@RecklesslyPessimistic]

Battleborn deserved its failure. It tried to appeal to both the PVP market and the PVE market abd satisfied neither. Moral of the story; dont bite off more than you can chew.

[@SpankTheMunkee]

"Game was good, but it wasn`t great" Speak for yourself my guy, I`ve been playing games since the Atari 2600 days and this is my fav thing to play with mates, no question and thankfully a little project called Reborn exists. Not gonna lie, enjoying a bit of schadenfreude watching Overwatch these days. XD

[@MsElViktor]

its fun to remember that, originally, i was thinking about buying Battleborn, i was a teeneager at the time so i have to wait for a while to get the money. And i havent even heard of OW at the time. I only saw OW for the first time, like october of that year. And yes, in october i still havent bought battleborn. But since i discovered OW, i bought in january and still play to this day and have (almost) completely forget about Battleborn

[@erder00rv]

btw, the person reviving BB (privat server dev) was the same one that developed project KO (rumbleverse privat server)

[@heavyheadbanger]

I don't feel like watching the whole of the video but I'm well aware it's due to me being so in love with Battleborn... I didn't care either for your arguments so far but I do appreciate your right to your opinion

[@JustSaySteven]

Honesty is a respected virtue

[@AYAKXSHI]

Honestly i never knew it existed

[@sirquixano5985]

I remember getting 5 of my friends each a copy of battleborn for one of their birthdays so they could play together (I was the only one without an xbox so none for myself), $25 total lol, what a deal.

[@overwatchafterhours3936]

Still a shame to this DAY they didn't at least make it playable offline. (Not the pvp but the story mode)

[@skyro1765]

WE COULDVE THIS BUT WE GOT CONCORD

[@asrieldreemurr1918]

funny how both evolve and battleborn kinda died the same way

[@MentalEdge]

I miss my girl Phoebe so much

[@shotygamingonyt]

NEXT should be Gigantic

[@DrozCola]

The game just released 💀

[@shotygamingonyt]

@@DrozCola i know 🤫

[@heromedley]

nah gigantic didnt cost 60$ on launch had all the characters easily unlockable after only 3 hours of play earnable cosmetics and had a fun twist on the moba genre

[@shotygamingonyt]

@@heromedley and it still failed

[@boochaca7957]

gigantic died because it launched on the damn MS store and never said anything. i just randomly saw it while scrolling through free games thinking lmao "what phone game is this?" they did just kick the servers back on for the people that wanna play though

[@meodrac]

Everything Randy Pitchford touches, it turns to shit

[@TECHNICALfalcon]

I just wish it was possible to play pve stuff or co op etc , I didn’t get to play much as most of my friends were playing siege so I didn’t get to play much ,

[@Sick_Sara]

The co-op campaign was fun but definitely way too short.

[@GabeHowardd]

Concord took Battleborn's

[@Scyclo]

I actually liked battlevorn and really wanted it to succeed. Unfortunately they decided to launch with overwatch killing it on arrival. Also all the points you made. The game should of been 30-40 dollars at launch, and i wasnt opposed to unlocking characters through game play it was decently made. Unlike what blizzard tried doing with overwatch 2 with unlocking characters, which was poorly constructed and terrible taste from a game that has always allowed all heros to be used before the sorry excuse for a 2 at the end. I want gearbox to relaunch this. Given overwatch and its aweful state currently im aure the game would do really well with a relaunch

[@slvrcobra1337]

I think it was fair to charge $60 for Battleborn because that's what Blizzard charged for Overwatch on console and it had less content overall. They had about the same amount of heroes but Overwatch was pvp only, had two modes that played the same, like 6 maps, no ranked, no story, just the same two modes over and over.

[@BLVN7S]

this game was so fucking good

[@krodmandoon3479]

2:51 No it isn't. Overwatch *2* is here now, meaning both of them are dead and never coming back.

[@johntheechidna1]

The toxicity of other players didn't help, either.

[@kusolp544]

about hero unlock, next season in 5 days unlock all current and furure ow2 heros for free

[@M3rcanSoldi3r856]

Lasted longer than concord

[@RecklesslyPessimistic]

I really dont see why people hate on OW2, Valve did the same thing with TF2 back in the day, made a full price game f2p, and everyone fucking loves Valve. Worse yet Valves games have far more predatory monetization practices. Valve has just straighr up gambling in their games. I much prefer OW2s buy the cosmetics you want model.

[@verguco6051]

even a death game since 2016 have more pve/story compaign/co-op content than the super mega sequel ow2 made exclusively to have all of this. and the funniest part is that ow only won vs battleborn because the porn, yeah accept it people. the president of gearbox made a sub reddit about battleborn porn wanting some of the popularity of overwatch

[@bloodangel7731]

Battleborn deserves to come back

[@darielsegura7196]

Steven should play gigantic

[@boochaca7957]

Honestly, game had way too high of a skill/learning curve to ever be as mainstream as overwatch, but it'd still fucking be alive if it wasn't for overwatch.

[@CameronjauntePrice]

Overwatch had porn

[@zage932]

What even is a battleborn?

[@ethanfletcher5369]

The game only failed due to bad marketing and the time it was released

[@16BitOG]

Idiot gamers killed the game. They called BB a OW knockoff when the games couldn't be more different. BB had everything going for it. Single player. co-op, PVP, and most importantly, BOTS. The writing was hilarious, the environments were gorgeous, the character designs were unique, and all it took to kill the game was the "hurr durr Battleborn sucks play Overwatch" neckbeard try hards.

[@cynical6819]

I find myself wanting to play incursion all the time 😢

[@DragonMasterJon]

Miss this game

[@bigstarcumiin101]

I played way more BB than Ow but was into into it when it shut down. Honestly if they gave it some upgrades made it free it to play I bet it could be revived.

[@drivanradosivic1357]

Proper offline mode for Story, PVE and PVP vs bots, and more importantly, The ability to host COOP, PVP and servers, peer2peer and even LAN for futureproofing. for the Free to play variant, call it a Shareware version, give us the prologue(so you can unlock Mellka), Chapter 1, Dojo, and rotation of free Champions to enjoy.

[@creeem97]

The game wasnt amazing but it didn’t deserve the hate. But the development team was greedy and as soon as they realized they weren’t gonna make money they shut it down.

[@datemasamune2904]

Considering what Overwatch has become, maybe we made a mistake letting this game die.

[@theblankking1966]

I was an Ambra main, and I still think her amazing blend of Support/healing mixed with aggressive CQC melee combat was one of the most fun experiences I ever had in a competitive shooter. I really hope they do something new with the IP in the future but I sadly doubt it will. People even tried to get Gearbox's attention to bring it back with a petition but, alas, fell on deaf ears.

[@Scyclo]

Ambra was fans right? I loved playing her I mained her and Beatrix

[@chocoloutre]

But nowdays you can at least play again on pc the pve in solo thank to a modder^^ And some people who worked on the game enjoyed it, so let's hope for the future :)

[@tddavis]

I’m sick of people saying why the game failed from people who obviously didn’t play the game. Overwatch didn’t kill battleborn, it died from a dev team mis managing the game. Battleborns main problem was a really bad matchmaking algorithm that created very lopsided games. So you were either getting stomped or doing the stomping. Obviously it is easy to see why people would leave because no one likes getting stomped. The game also had a very toxic meta of chain stunlocking people until they died. These 2 things combined caused the population to bleed. When the population started to be anemic enough it created contention between players who liked the mealtdown mode vs incursion. On console most players mostly liked playing incursion with mealtdown players having extremely long queue times. Gearbox decided to balance mealtdown queues by forcing incursion players to play mealtdown. This created further anger and caused more people to quit because they were forced to play a mode they didn’t find fun.

[@captainphoton1693]

i still cant belive the paladins comunity and hi rez looking at paladins players count. and be like. nah thats low. the game is gonna die. gonna stop playing / gonna stop supporting. When the cmpetition is 3 times as low after a month, withut a console edition or cross play the make the numbers go up.

[@DraggyLordeOfficial]

tbh, could change the word battleborn with overwatch and you have another factual video.

[@Sanjixoxo]

*Barely Born and already dead*

[@henriccarlsson9052]

It had the best trailer though. I still watch it from time to time.

[@Wingspand1]

i really liked Battleborn when it first came out. I got to play both OW and it the same week they were both free at my friends. Sadly, it was to expensive and online only which meant living in the country with no internet meant I couldnt play it. I prefered it over OW but by the time I got internet, I feel in love with paladins and other games instead.

[@AtmosphereIVXX]

Battleborne>>overwatch 2

[@zeroparadoxes]

MAKE BATTLEBORN GREAT AGAIN!

[@voxpopuli2590]

Ill say it, battleborn was better than overwatch. Story mode, upgrades on the go to change up your build and actual progression. If they had let it bake another year, it would have swept overwatch.

[@nikesshoes2011]

i loved the art design for everything in this game

[@Skarrz72]

There was an interview with 2 guys from Gearbox. Something like it's not a MOBA but has MOBA-like aspects. LOL It's a MOBA. I never completed the game and hated the time limit. The comedy was great.

[@sethlarson2525]

Loved that game

[@Quietguy00]

I remember this on h20 delirious video about this game

[@justinguzman3535]

Till this video I thought battleborn was a pve horde shooter and I've played most pvp hero shooters that have released. Watching this made me realize I probably would of enjoyed it at the time

[@drunkenpolack4385]

If only they brought the servers back when overwatch fucked over its fans

[@Shaq2Big]

i dont see anything wrong with it making a return as a story based game tbh if it has all of the story in set and stuff

[@EmceeMOTH]

Are you covering Gigantic?

[@JustSaySteven]

I should

[@poochypanda]

good video

[@hollowbrinethehollowfiedsu6365]

I still love Battleborn more, especially the characters and story

[@pezzthegreat]

Ah I miss this game so much

[@scaryhorrorx-x]

I miss it :( I wish it didn't die

[@heromedley]

instead of setting themselves apart the competition they chose to antagonize the other. what a briliant stunt makes you think if the games downfall was deserved.

[@arico7923]

Concord

[@samson-f7y]

Fun to see now that how blizzard stealing ideas for characters from Battleborn

[@gerelinwar0567]

great vid man

[@insane7718]

One of the first games i had on the ps4 lol

[@Moxxichild379]

My dear Deande ❤️‍🩹

[@coadamolx0100]

ha i prefer paladins

[@cthulhu_original]

The game is ass so that’s why it died