The good news is that Battleborn isn't dead. Who knew, right? The bad news is that it will be once January 2021 rolls around. 2K announced via Twitter that they will be deactivating the servers for Battleborn in a little over a year from now.
They also pulled the game from every digital storefront they could. I'm sure the millions of you that were still on the fence about picking it up for a year full of fun and merriment are now supremely disappointed. Furthermore, 2K will stop players from being able to purchase virtual currency starting in February of 2020. Throughout the rest of 2020, players will be able to spend the remaining currency that they had previously purchased up until the point that the game is pulled off of life support.
For some players, the game was effectively killed off two years ago when Gearbox stopped updating it. Hell, the game was already down to sub-100 player counts on PC when that last update hit in October of 2017. I can't even imagine what the numbers look like right now.
Aside from the ability to purchase virtual currency going away in February, nothing else will change for the game between then and the server shutdown in 2021.
Battleborn had the unfortunate timing of coming out almost right alongside Overwatch. The somewhat similar visuals and poor marketing from Gearbox and 2K did very little to differentiate the two very different titles in the eyes of consumers. They also dropped the ball again when they decided to not make Battleborn a F2P title when given the chance. Instead, 2K and Gearbox released a "free trial" for Battleborn, which gave limited access to the game. You still had to pay if you wanted more than six rotating characters and the full suite of content that included all characters, cosmetics, and even the game's story mode. Like, they really screwed up by not ever making the entire thing F2P with optional cosmetic microtransactions.
That's not even mentioning how badly Gearbox's Randy Pitchford and his arrogance managed to push people away from the game before it was ever released. Who could ever forget this infamous tweet?
For the time I spent in Battleborn, I actually had a ton of fun. While Overwatch was more of a team-based hero shooter, Battleborn was very much in the "third-person MOBA" camp. If anything, it was more like the 2011 title Monday Night Combat. Remember that one? It was also a third-person MOBA-like game that has also, sadly, died off over the years. Best of luck and GG's to the remaining Battleborn players as you enter this final year of the game's life.
