Things aren't going well for Battleborn.
Perhaps trying to go toe-to-toe with Overwatch wasn't such a good idea: while Blizzard Entertainment's hero-based multiplayer shooter has become an absolutely huge success, Gearbox Software's latest has fallen to the wayside. No matter what the developer tries to do, Battleborn just can't seem to build any momentum — and the latest server reports seem to indicate that it may already be too late.
According to Steam Charts, Battleborn is only averaging around 800 players online at any given time. To put it bluntly, those sorts of numbers are abysmal — especially when you consider that older games like Destiny and Halo still pull in thousands of players around the clock. Battleborn's peak numbers aren't much better: in the last month, the game's online population maxed out at just 1,600 users.
What's worse is that the numbers have been getting worse and worse since launch. Back in May, Battleborn started off with roughly 4,200 players online, with peak traffic sitting at roughly 12,000 players. If those numbers had stuck around, maybe Battleborn wouldn't be in such hot water ... but it only took a few weeks for the player count to start dropping.
As if all that bad news wasn't enough, it doesn't look like any of Gearbox Software's tactics are working: Battleborn debuted both a new character and a new $40 price tag just after launch, but neither tactic managed to increase the game's population all that much. Even a half-price Steam Summer Sale discount failed to pull in new players, as traffic barely changed throughout the entirety of the week-long sale.
Granted, it is important to remember that this is only regarding the PC version of the game — though it's hard to imagine that the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 ports are doing much better.
At this point, it's hard to imagine a solution other than a switch to a free-to-play model. Further discounting the game doesn't seem to be enough to interest gamers, especially when Overwatch is dominating so much of the platform. If Gearbox were to get rid of Battleborn's price tag altogether and switch to a focus on microtransactions, the studio might be able to entice users enough to at least try its game ... though in all honesty, even that might not be enough.
It's a shame, too: it's not as if Battleborn is an outright travesty. True, it has its fair share of problems, but (as our review states) it's not without personality or solid mechanics.
Apparently, that just wasn't good enough for players to really latch onto.
