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Retailers Discount Battleborn as Overwatch Prepares to LaunchGet
Battleborn now for only $40 at Amazon and GameStop.
Numerous retailers, including
Amazon and
GameStop,
are now selling
Borderlands developer
Gearbox Software's new shooter
Battleborn for only
$40,
Kotaku
discovered. The price drop comes less than a month after the
game arrived on May 3.
The timing is also interesting in that today, May 23, is the day
when Blizzard's own hero-based shooter Overwatch goes on
sale ahead of the 4
PM PST / 7 PM EST server launch.
Battleborn is off to an "encouraging" start,
according to 2K Games parent company Take-Two Interactive. However,
it is too
soon to say if the game will enjoy a similar sales curve
as Borderlands, CEO Strauss Zelnick said on an earnings call
recently.
The first Borderlands sold
2
million copies in its first two months back in 2009, and went
on to sell
7
or 8 million copies in its lifetime, according to creative
director Randy Varnell. Multiple sequels were released, and
Borderlands is now one of 2K's biggest properties.
A third
mainline game is now in development. Battleborn's upcoming
DLC will
include Easter eggs that reference the game.
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford said in February that Battleborn
represents the developer's "biggest
investment" ever. At the time, Pitchford added that when
other similar-looking games like Overwatch and LawBreakers started
showing up, Gearbox knew it was onto something.
"First, there's some competition, which is a fun challenge," he
said. "But also, wow, those guys are really smart, too and they
think there's something here. Maybe we're not crazy after all;
maybe there's a customer for this game."
As for Overwatch, if the game's highly successful beta is any
indication, it could become a top-seller for Blizzard. The open
beta, which ran May 5-9, attractednearly
10 million players, eclipsing the beta player numbers for games
like Star Wars:
Battlefront and Destiny.
For more on these two games, check out GameSpot's
Battleborn review and all of our previous Overwatch
coverage.