The option to purchase premium Platinum currency, for example, will be disabled on February 24, 2020. 2K says that existing Platinum currency will still be spendable, and you’ll still be able to earn it in-game after February 24, but it won’t be available for direct purchase. And yes, it is strange to see a game removed from stores but still allow in-game purchases. 

Apart from that, Battleborn will remain unchanged until its servers are taken offline in January 2021. After that, neither its solo campaign nor its multiplayer modes will be available. Poof, a whole game, gone. Here’s a late welcome to the digital age. 

In case you missed it, or indeed forgot about it, here’s a quick refresher. Battleborn was released in February 2016, right around the time of the big hero shooter boom spawned by Overwatch and its runaway success. It had nice art and its MOBA-style character builder and objectives had their moments, but as we said in our review (opens in new tab), Battleborn was OK at best. Unfortunately for it, OK didn’t cut it in 2016, not when everyone was high on the Overwatch beta. It ran into some bugs and balance issues, and it wasn’t long before most everyone had written it off for dead. 

To its credit, much like Epic’s ill-fated MOBA Paragon (which, coincidentally, was killed so Epic could focus on Fortnite’s success), Battleborn did command a small but loyal fan base for several years. That said, it’s no surprise to see 2K pull the plug. Hell, the fact that it’s keeping the lights until January 2021 is a surprise. If nothing else, may Battleborn be remembered for, according to art director Scott Kester, contributing to Borderlands 3’s success (opens in new tab) by giving Gearbox a much-needed break and some inspiration. 

If you’re looking for Black Friday assistance as we get deeper into November, check out our roundup of the best Black Friday game deals (opens in new tab).   

The post Battleborn removed from stores ahead of server closure in January 2021 appeared first on Game News.

Interestingly, Kotaku’s source claims that the shift has been in the works for awhile now, even before the game was first launched. According to them, Gearbox had intended for Battleborn to be free from the start, but 2K wanted it sold as a premium game.

If this story sounds familiar, you may be thinking of Evolve, which also considered a free-to-play business model before it too was sold at full price, only to later reverse course (opens in new tab) (it should be noted that Evolve transferred hands from THQ to 2K partway through development, whereas Battleborn was always under 2K’s umbrella). Evolve’s concurrent playerbase went from triple digits to more than 25,000 when the game re-launched as a free-to-play game, so no doubt 2K would like to see history repeated here.

According to Kotaku’s source, the official announcement will come this November.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us (opens in new tab)!

The post Report: Battleborn to follow Evolves lead and go free-to-play appeared first on Game News.

There will be paid DLC in the form of five packs which each contain a story mission, as well as exclusive hero skins and taunts. Each mission can be purchased standalone for $5, or together in a season pass for $20. A Digital Deluxe edition, which comes with the base game, all five DLC packs, and bonus cosmetic items, will be available for $75.

Lastly, much like the MOBA genre from which it borrows heavily, Battleborn will sell cosmetic customizations in-game. Prices have not yet been specified. Gearbox promises that nothing being sold will impact gameplay (aside from having new missions to play), and that the sales of these optional aesthetic upgrades help ensure more free content arrives – including maps, modes, and the aforementioned heroes.

Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!

The post Battleborn season pass detailed, contains story missions and special skins appeared first on Game News.

The game features a very distinct style, especially within a genre that often aims for realism. How would you describe its artistic approach?
The best way that we can probably define it is taking the Western CGI approach… like Pixar, that polished nature – then combining it with Japanese animation to get that graphic and action-y feel.

It’s especially cool to see the 2D effects set against the chaotic action. How’s that achieved?
We have Michel Gagné, who worked on The Iron Giant. He’s done lots of 2D animation, so he’s been helping our team do those effects, which add lots of wonderful flavour to the game – not only for characters’ special abilities, but also those effects around the maps. In our snow, for example, you can see some wispy 2D snow effects.

Can you talk a bit about the environment we played in and what other types of settings we can expect?
You got to visit Bliss, which is a moon. You got to see some of the snow and a little bit of the temples; you also got to see a Peacekeeper base. But, obviously, there is a good amount of other variety… jungles, deserts, temples, things like that.

Can you talk a bit more about those specific genres and inspirations?
So our overall direction combines CGI with anime, but then our influences are… well, a large variety of things. We love fighting games, so there is an influence there; we were inspired by MOBAs, RPGs, and by different movies. Our crane arms, seen in the demo, even reference an old ‘80s toy that was a robot arm.

The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine, with Halo 5 Guardians on the cover, is out now. Download it here or subscribe (opens in new tab) to future issues.

The post How to make Battleborn pretty appeared first on Game News.