We need to talk, Gearbox.
Let’s hop in our way back machine to 1998. Half-Life had just been released and all was truly right with the world. Valve, wanting to continue the story of Black Mesa in other ways, thus allowed a fledgling developer recently founded by five men from different development companies to create full expansion packs for the colossal, award winning hit. These titles would come to be known as Opposing Force and Blue Shift. The success of those two titles would allow Valve to green light ports of Half-Life to the PS2 and Dreamcast, as well as the little known (and lesser played) expansion exclusive to the PS2, Half-Life: Decay.
For a time, Gearbox would proudly release ported versions of several games, including, to the surprise of many I’ve found, Halo: Combat Evolved. Inevitably, however, the goal of any developer is to eventually strike out on their own, and they did so with the successful and enjoyable Brothers in Arms series. Gearbox also started planing games based on films, such as Heat and Aliens, though the former would unfortunately never be realized due to the closure of their development partner.
In 2007, Gearbox would shatter the gaming world, announcing an ambitious science fiction loot and shoot title called “Borderlands.” Set on an ultra-violent, Purge-like anarchist paradise world known as “Pandora”, the game was originally envisioned as another gritty, realistic world graphics shooter game, though this was later scrapped due to a belief that the universe would be more served by a comic/”cel shaded” style of graphics. In a world of Call of Duty’s, Battlefields, and Fallout 3, not to discount the myriad of other shooter games released during Borderlands’s development, the art style was considered refreshing, almost essential, and was a direct reason the game was a success. The game single-handedly created a new genre of gaming: The Looter Shooter. That genre continues to grow, with a few games you may be familiar with, and EA jumping in the fray down the line.
Borderlands was not without its flaws, however. Gearbox addressed those issues with a comprehensive list delivered in universe by CL4P-TP, or simply Claptrap.
Thus, Borderlands 2, balancing issues past level 61 aside, became not only an extremely successful smash hit sequel, but one of my personal favorites of all time, (and the reason I wound up a Twitch Partner.) The game would go on to have four successful expansion packs, particularly the last one featuring fan-favorite character Tiny Tina, followed up by five short stories known as “Headhunter packs,” giving the game a lot of content, thus adding to its longevity.
However, the good times started to come to an end due to some questionable decisions and much reported controversies. Gearbox has, to date, acquired the rights to Duke Nukem, Homeworld, and recently put forth a critical qualified success but poorly received remaster of Bulletstorm. While not directly responsible for the development process behind it, “Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!” originally started out as a much-hyped… well… pre-sequel to the Borderlands universe. Set in the interim of Borderlands and Borderlands 2 (Think, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron or my personal favorite, Shadows of the Empire), the game took us to a place many of us has wanted to go, Pandora’s moon, known as Elpis. Unfortunately, the game was hamstrung by a myriad of issues, ranging from new characters that were poorly received (Pickle, for example) to a lack of endgame content and consistently easily farm-able bosses to obtain the best loot the game had to offer. While the latter would go on to be fixed, it was not enough to spare the game from the wrath of Bungie’s already released by that point juggernaut, Destiny. The Pre-Sequel’s developer, 2K Australia, would later shutter its doors after having only developed one of four planned DLC for the game.
As the life cycle of Destiny, The Division, and other looter shooters would evolve in the interim between 2014 and now, many fans of the progenitor of the genre would hold out hope that a proper, full sequel to Borderlands 2 would arrive, commonly referred to as “Borderlands 3.” Sadly, as of this writing, that has not come to pass. While it is “openly understood” that Borderlands 3 is in development, fans have not received a proper announcement of its development or release date. As of yet, the most we have seen in terms of the “rumored” game is a tech demo showing off Unreal 4 rendering effects. This has led to a severe disconnect between the passionate fan base of the Borderlands universe and the Gearbox, with frustrations mounting every year as the developer continues to produce unrelated content that, for lack of a better term, go over like a lead balloon.
The most prominent example of this is Battleborn, a game that is... well. I’ll let Gearbox Founder, President, and CEO Randy Pitchford explain as best as he can.
Battleborn was a game I truly enjoyed on release, and I tried very hard to resist the hype of another game which had just went into open beta a week before Battleborn’s release: Overwatch. That game, which was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, would be perceived by the gaming community at large as direct competition to Battleborn, despite the two games having very few similarities. Battleborn would go on to suffer a laundry list of gameplay and balancing issues. Character designs for casual players were found to be confusing as it became very difficult at first gance to ascertain what a certain character’s archetype was that you were going against or wanted to play as; a healer, tank, or damage dealer. Battleborn’s player base would suffer greatly after the first few weeks, causing a snowball effect that is common in most games attempting to be “social, online experiences” these days: if you cannot maintain a significant player base past a month, you will lose 95%+ of your audience to whatever game is considered “flavor of the month.” These issues were compounded by snipers targeting opposing turrets safely from their own base on what was commonly considered the “default map,” a lack of swift patches to alleviate balancing concerns, and the poor, unbalanced roll-out of their first DLC character: Alani. Unfortunately, the game has limped along after releasing several more DLC characters to little fan faire, leading Gearbox to the recent decision to stop supporting content development of the game. One gem to come out of Battleborn, however, was its companion app Battleborn Tap. I still play it to this day.
So, we have arrived now to where we need to talk, Gearbox. It has been over five years since Borderlands 2 has been released. In that time, you have achieved few successes as measured by the genre of game you have put forth. The argument that “Battleborn sold well!” does not hold water, as the game did not hold an audience, and was intended to be much like League of Legends or other MOBAs of the time period; an IP that would last a long time and have content consistently coming forth. You have decided to start publishing other people’s games outright, beginning with We Happy Few, a game with a much maligned early access.
Then we must address the overwhelmingly large elephant in the room; your PAX conferences at each convention. For three years now, I have defended, to the point of exhaustion, that the NEXT PAX convention would surely be the PAX where Borderlands 3 would be announced. Mr. Pitchford has gone on record stating a “special relationship” with PAX at a panel in 2014, leading me to believe that were there to be an offical announcement, it would be there. Instead, we’ve been treated to year, after year, after year of magic tricks and unrelated content. Mr. Pitchford is, of course, an accomplished and talented magician (and purveyor of very fine shirts) but these sideshow distractions have worn thin on the patience and goodwill of the gaming community at large. We’re provided with distractions (via an art that is the mastery of distraction) in lieu of hearing those two magical, hype generating words: “Borderlands 3.”
If you’re unconvinced about my opinion on the goodwill of the gaming community wearing thin toward Gearbox for their missteps, I cite this example from Twitch streamer KingGothalion’s Twitter.
The theme of the tweet is simple, of course. Much like “Nuggs for Carter,” the efforts of one Twitter user to get free chicken nuggets from Wendy’s for a year, Gothalion decided to use the power of social media to raise awareness for Borderlands 2 to be ported to Nintendo’s most recent console, the Switch. However, as of this writing, the tweet has received a “paltry” 53,349 re-tweets towards the stated goal of one million. I’m of the mind that, if this was 2014 with all things equal for a similar premise, this tweet for the expansion of the Borderlands library would absolutely have received 1,000,000+ re-tweets. The IP was hot, the competition hadn’t yet fully coalesced onto the scene, and Gearbox (while slightly tarnished by the Colonial Marines debacle) was looking rather pristine. Here we are, three years removed, and what a difference three short years can make. I was also led to question why Mr. Pitchford was so ready to entertain the idea of a Borderlands game on the Switch, when he’d stated that Nintendo had “other priorities” that caused a possible partnership with Gearbox to fall through. This caused me to have a few questions:
So, what can Gearbox Software do to recover? How can they reclaim their former glory? First, and foremost, I have this nagging suspicion in my head that there is a pervasive fear from Gearbox that they, should they only focus on Borderlands, would become a “one game company.” I find this to be wholly unfounded, some of the best and largest studios in the world work solely on one title. Becoming the “Borderlands” developer would be a blessing, a boon in my opinion, and would show a devoted, direct commitment to a game that many of us love so much.
Announcing Borderlands 3 in general is the next step, and perhaps the most obvious one. Mr. Pitchford has made passing commentary that if he had, he’d “get in trouble” with some, but this is a time to stand up and shout from the rooftops that we will return to Pandora, before irreparable damage from burnout and competition are done to the brand. Gearbox’s fan base is hungry for information, for open discussion of the development process. One can concede that open discussions with communities have led to some extremely heinous replies from truly reprehensible people. Even so, this can be assuaged by my next point.
Community management and influencer outreach relations are two of the most important positions on a development team today. In the past, Gearbox has been very poor about supporting the community outright, with the Gearbox Fan Appreciation Day several years back having been poorly received and the Gearbox Loot Hunt only happening once. Balancing patches were slow to be released with a staggering lack of understanding of what the game needed fixed, and messages from the company were muddled as to what changes were coming next. The community would eventually come up with The Hunt, thanks to now Twitch Admin Ganza, and the “Gearbox Community Patch” created by ShadowEvil1996. In the recent year, Gearbox had made a stride by providing prizes for The Hunt, but has still not offered real support for the Community Patch, (nor will they likely do so.) The Gearbox Community Badass program is one to be lauded, highlighting exceptional members of the Gearbox community at large gives players incentive to go above and beyond the call of the game to create awesome experiences and fun spaces for their fellow gamers. I may be biased on this however, as I’m proud to be one.
Finally, and this is where I’m likely to get into some hot water. Mr. Pitchford, I’m begging you, please dial it back a bit. I know you’re a very passionate, outspoken man, and proud to be known as such. I don’t believe it’s out of malice, rather passion, much like any other gamer in the community at large. You love your magic, take pride in expressing yourself on Twitter, and fiercely defend the company you, in large part, built from the ground up. Make no mistake, I respect you, and was exuberant to have met you. Twice. However, much like how you pride yourself as a lightning rod for criticisms of the company (as you said, to shield your employees from unwarranted, unjust, and undue harassment), that can conversely hurt the image of the entire company as you become synonymous with the brand. You have an amazing community outreach team, please put your trust in them to reach out to community leaders and influencers to work towards rebuilding a proud, vibrant, safe community for all gamers to celebrate the works of your team.
I really do love you, Gearbox. Make no mistake about it when I say that. I would not be where I am today without Borderlands 2, a game that introduced me to amazing friends, a passionate community, and granted me the ability to live my dream of being a professional gamer (and singer… sort of.) What I write today is not out of spite or hatred, but concern and hope. There is nigh-limitless potential behind your doors, and the time is right to let your light shine. Pandora needs to call us home.
-Mitsu
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