Since its release back in May of this year, Battleborn has been under-performing in sales. The hero shooter game has been competing with Overwatch since it came out but it has not been able to competitively compete with it (understandably so). According to Kotaku, a source close to the developer, Gearbox Software, says that due to its lack in sales, the company will work on adopting a free-to-play model that will come out sometime this year. The unnamed source has stated that developer Gearbox and publisher 2K may announce their plans for the free-to-play model as early as November.
One of the reasons why Battleborn has struggled in sales is because it has been competing with Overwatch – a game many have compared it to and have named its closest competitor – which came out almost simultaneously. The unnamed source also claimed that Battleborn was originally supposed to be free-to-play when it came out back in May, but its publisher (2K) changed those plans and released it for the $60 retail price. Although Battleborn has received positive reviews and it is (for the most part) considered a pretty good game, Blizzard’s Overwatch has dominated the market, specifically for hero shooter games.
However, Randy Pitchfork of Gearbox quickly went to Twitter to reject these claims, calling the unnamed source and the Kotaku article as “reckless.”
Kotaku’s articles usually are pretty reliable so Randy’s denial of the unnamed source’s claims may be to conceal Gearbox’s announcement for the free-to-play for later in the year. His claim that a free trail and new DLC’s will be coming out seem near-impossible if you take into account their low user base. Recovering the development cost would seem unachievable at this point. Below is an image of their Steam user base.
2K has since dropped the price; it now sells on Amazon and other retail stores for about $20, but this might be a too-little-too-late move. 2K and Gearbox have consistently held events and released new content for the game in order to keep fans interested to buy and play the game: free heroes and PVP maps have been released. And later this year Gearbox is reportedly going to release more missions and more heroes, but ultimately this was still not enough to raise its sales figures. If 2K does in fact adapt a free-to-play model, they may offer its current players who bought the game some kind of reward once it goes free, but this is still speculation.
Kotaku reports that Strauss Zelnick of Take-Two Interactive (parent company of 2K) has acknowledged that Battleborn had flopped, following an earnings call last month.
While the game launched to solid reviews, its performance in the market has been below our expectations. We think there remains an opportunity to grow the audience for this unique experience over time and 2K will continue to drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending on the title through add-on content and virtual currency.
With the success of putting their previous game, Evolve, as free-to-play, 2K may decide that it’d be best to do the same for Battleborn. This past July, Evolve went free-to-play on PC and it has since skyrocketed to the top of Steam’s charts. Its player count went up to over 25,000 after previously only holding a couple hundreds. It seems like this is the best move for 2K and Gearbox. The free-to-play model is likely to place a plaster over a gaping wound, but if it worked out for Evolve, then it wouldn’t hurt to do the same for Battleborn.