The latest earning’s call for Battleborn distributor Take-Two Interactive has revealed how the online shooter hasn’t quite managed to generate as many sales as the company had hoped it would. Released back in May, the Gearbox Software-developed title has since failed to capture the attention of potential fans, and has instead seen its total number of active players drop to less-than-ideal levels.
Take-Two chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick was rather forthcoming in regards to the current state of the game, stating that (via VideoGamer):
On May 3, 2K released Battleborn, a new intellectual property from Gearbox Software, the makers of our popular Borderlands Series. While the game launched to solid reviews, its performance in the market has been below our expectations.
However, despite the current state of affairs, Zelnick continues to say that nobody is giving up on the MOBA-inspired shooter just yet, and that post-launch support in the form of DLC and “virtual currency” is still coming at a later date.
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.
We’re being very frank about where we are, because we’re a transparent company. We’re still delivering new content to Battleborn. Audiences love Battleborn. We still have virtual currency coming for Battleborn. We’re not counting it out for a minute. We’re just telling you where we’re at now.
Although it was already clear as day that Battleborn has been struggling to retain a core audience since launch, Zelnick’s openness about the topic is nice to see, nonetheless.
We have every hope that Gearbox can rectify all of the issues we found with Battleborn in our review, as doing so would instantly make it a more enjoyable experience. However, we’re not too sure if it’ll be able to tear anyone away from Blizzard’s Overwatch…