In a heartfelt letter on Gearbox’s Forums last Friday, Creative Director, Randy Varnall, who’s been on the project since 2012, officially announced the end of development for his hero-shooter Battleborn. This announcement comes only year and a half since its release and just a few short months since going free-to-play last June.
Struggles for Battleborn have dated all the way back to its launch in May of 2016. After receiving mixed reviews, this once unique shooter quickly found itself buried in the shadows of a game just like it. Once Blizzard’s Overwatch released Battleborn saw its player numbers drop significantly. Despite efforts from the development team to keep releasing new content and features, including an aggressive decision to go free-to-play, player numbers never recovered.
While it’s definitely a sad moment to see a major multiplayer game end its development, there are still positive takeaways from that letter.
For one, Randy wants to assure us that “Battleborn is here to stay. Nothing is changing with Battleborn, and the servers will be up and active for the foreseeable future.” So for anyone who currently loves playing Battleborn, or anyone who is still looking to check the game out, it’s not going anywhere. Nor is Randy’s talents and passion for game development. In fact, he’s already off on his next project, “…many folks at Gearbox are working on a highly anticipated project…I’m happy to announce that I will play a significant role on this highly anticipated but unannounced game.” With the end of development on one game, so begins the development of another. I’d also like to hope that the entire development team on Battleborn has a home on this new project as well.
Let me know what you think about Battleborn and the end of its development in the comments below. Also, what do you think this new Gearbox project is all about. Another shooter similar to Battleborn, or maybe a PUBG clone or something entirely different and new?