This isn’t something that’s coming out of thin air. Digital Analytics team Superdata has been crunching the numbers, and doing all the math. Long and the short of it is that Battleborn has been bodied by Overwatch in every aspect. It’s not “top five” in any of the categories they listed in their data. Evolve, published by 2k and distributed by Take-Two has this in common, as they recently went F2P. There’s no shame in a title being free to play. Many of the best, or most lucrative PC titles are on that route and doing just fine. The highest digital revenues in their categories were:
- CoD: Black Ops III [Console]
- Overwatch [PC]
- League of Legends [F2P MMO]
- WoW [P2P MMO]
- Monster Strike [Mobile]
- Slotomania [Social]
What’s the reason though? It’s not a bad game. Gearbox is known for tremendous, creative storytelling. And their story is, for the most part amazing. It gets a little repetitious with all the characters being snarky, but it’s definitely going the right way. But the big mistake? Dropping the same day as Overwatch. No, they aren’t the same type of game, but they dropped on the same day. Overwatch crushed everything that came out in the same month as it, because everyone wanted it! It’s Blizzard, it’s an FPS, and it’s catchy. It doesn’t have a story mode, it’s just non stop, easy to get into action. And again, Blizzard. It’s not rocket science. There are a few franchises/companies you don’t battle.
- Don’t battle FF7. The month that comes out? Seriously, don’t drop any games then. No big content. Let it wait.
- Blizzard. They’re the HNIC of PC content practically. Not always the best content, but definitely solid work. Give them berth for their shit to drop.
The list could go on, but I’ll spare you. Companies really need to be more aware of the competition and what’s releasing when. If you know something’s popular and you aren’t 100% your product is going to win out? Wait. I bet if Battleborn had come out a little bit earlier/later, it could have stood a better chance. This is all speculation, but it’s certainly a possibility.
