TIL: If You Don't Try

Most of us know the story of Gearbox's Battleborn game. Released against the Blizzard powerhouse of Overwatch, the game was unfortunately compared Overwatch and never given the proper attention it deserved. There are multiple reasons for this games quick decline into relative obscurity, from a horrible release date, to an incredibly unstable release on PC, and most reviewers and players thinking it was a direct contender to Overwatch.

I've spent a good amount of time with Battleborn, coming back to it every few weeks to spend a little more time with it. I've also spent the last few months siding further and further into the massive black hole of eSports. And while this isn't a game changing realization, I now know what some of the early opinions were of Battleborn not being an Overwatch game. It isn't. It's actually a MOBA. Randy Pitchford tried to do his best to distance Battleborn from the typical MOBA stereotype leading up to the game's release and I think that was a mistake. It's a MOBA. It's a first person MOBA plain and simple. I love the characters in Battleborn, I've always been a fan of Gearbox's art style and their sense of humor. I like the world and the lore that they've created for this game. I like it more than the Overwatch lore actually. But I'd personally rather play Overwatch. And this is why; I'm horrible at MOBAs. From League of Legends to Heroes of the Storm to Vain Glory. I should be in love with all of these games but I'm just not any good at playing them. I do however really enjoy watching them. And give the chance I would watch a Battleborn league in a heartbeat. I think the success of the Overwatch player base shows that there are people who would watch this kind of game. And I'm sad that it will never be given its chance.

According to a report from Riot two years ago, League of Legends averages about 27 million users a month. Valve's MOBA title Dota 2 averages almost 900,000 a month. Even the extremely popular mobile version Vain Glory had 1.5 million players when it was released.

Battleborn peaked at 12,000 according to Steam numbers. That's .008 of the player base of Vain Glory. Think about that for a second. There are times where there are more people streaming Gearbox's 2012 title Borderlands 2 than Battleborn. So Battleborn will never be given its chance to have a competitive league. Even if the game goes to a free-to-play model this battle has already been lost.