Battleborn will be free-to-play in the coming couple of months. Word has it that it will be officially announced mid-November, but is subject to change. The announcement was rumored to be moved a couple of times now. Details about this have been spilled by a contact claiming to have or had closed ties with the game's developers.
The source in contact with Kotaku, anonymously speaking, said that Gearbox had always wanted to make Battleborn free-to-play from the start, but 2K - the game's publisher, decided to sell it for retail with the standard price of $60.
Unfortunately, the game was not a success in terms of sales and user base. This is thanks to a plethora of hero shooters coming out. For instance: Blizzard's Overwatch, which rolled out the same month as Battleborn. Although when compared, the games are in a sense different plus a number of people also reviewed Battleborn to be pretty good, still Overwatch dominated the market.
As of this writing, Battleborn's selling price has been steadily rolling down since it launched in May, the game is currently selling for $20 online and in stores. The game's developers regularly hosted events and launched new content, including PVP and free heroes maps. Gearbox also intends to release story campaigns and even more heroes later within this year. The studio might have to offer a sort of reward for current patrons once the game goes free. These plans however has to be finalized as stated by the source.
Gearbox and 2K have no official statements about this issue yet.
Take-Two Interactive's Strauss Zelnick recognized that Battleborn is a flop giving hints that they would switch lanes. For those who do not know, Take-Two is the mother company of 2K.
"While the game launched to solid reviews, its performance in the market has been below our expectations," Zelnick said. "We think there remains an opportunity to grow the audience for this unique experience over time and 2K will continue to drive engagement and recurrent consumer spending on the title through add-on content and virtual currency."
It seems that the decision is influenced by Evolve, a game that went from paid to free. Naturally, when you do this, there would be a huge increase on player pool, in Evolve's case, it went from hundreds to over 25 thousand.
Those who are anticipating to play Battleborn for free, here's what the game is all about:
