Can we talk about the fact that we had 2 years with DLCs and Some fixes and updates, but now they moved over to another game and thats it? I mean I would have expected BL3 to go like 4-5 years, with DLCs, Year Pass, fixes, updates, new levels, whatever.
I’m personally feel just exhausted thinking about starting a new game, level up the classes, get new gear, then get new levels, level more, ditch all gear, get new gear…
You guys seriously like this? And want this? Did you ask for this?
What about extending the current game/lore? Add new areas? Add new systems? Add new DLCs with Story? Add new Lore, add new challenges for solo/coop game? The list is endless…
I mean the Engine just start to be good (I personally experience less and less freezes and glitches, minor stuttering here and there vs. half a year ago where I couldn’t even use some weapons, it was glitching all over the place when shooting).
We just reached the level where the game feels non-beta. Except some bugs like my pet constantly being useless because it just doesn’t move and stuck in the most stupid simple places, thats why I rather play anything else but the beastmaster. And this is happenning since I can remember. But still I consider the game good now. Why not make a good game great with additional content?
Why would you expect a title to go for four or five years? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just want to understand where you’re coming from. I personally could understand that from a game-as-a-service, but BL3 (for all it’s post-release changes and rebalancing) isn’t a GaaS (for a good example of one, we’d look to Warframe, or Destiny 2, or a bunch of popular mobile titles).
I think Bl3 has reached the end of its life, 2 years for a game that is not "as service " is a lot, two years for game that is “a service” is not much, the problem is bl3 is somewhat in between so perceptions may vary
And that is exactly what I felt. And most of the games nowadays in between, I mean there are no more “boxed game sales” anymore. You see DLCs for all of the AAA titles and Season Pass. That is their extra revenue I get that, however that is also how a base game can be expanded.
Anyways, I feel ending it like this is kind of abrupt. Not to mention I have the feeling for the new game that it is still in development, and not even completed but it will coming out in 2-2.5 months? I smell another beta test on the horizon.
Well, I don’t think Gearbox anticipated people falling in love with the game as much as they did. They figured most people would do a single playthru of all content and move on, like the majority of people did for previous titles. Only a relative handful of people got deep into endgame for BL2 and other titles.
BL3 was different than prior games though. It sold better and attracted a wider base of players. Players who were used to looter shooters having extensive, accessible endgames. While BL3 has an accessible endgame, it’s not an extensive as other looter shooters.
By the time Gearbox realized there were a significant amount of people clamoring for more BL3 endgame content, they had already shifted production to Wonderlands. They’ve gone back and added additional material to BL3 that I suspect wasn’t originally planned (season pass 2). Which was good.
But the production ship has sailed on significant BL3 content at this point. Post Wonderlands, maybe they can revisit BL3 and look at more content. But not holding my breath there.
Luckily, Gearbox seems to have identified the desire for more extensive endgame content as they have indicated Wonderlands was built with that in mind. At least we’ll have that.
I don’t know that this is correct, and by that I mean I have never seen any info on this topic. Do you know when (in terms of timing, i.e., a date) GBX began development of Wonderlands?
It is supposition on my part based on generally how long most game development takes . More than likely, they had started Wonderlands before BL3 released (probably once the BL3 engine was solid). I’m guessing 2018 or late 2017.
As BL3 core game and DLC were completed, they shifted personnel to working on Wonderlands. Then post BL3 launch indicated players desired more BL3 content, but they couldn’t pull significant resources from Wonderlands as they had deadlines to meet.
Using what personnel they had still available, they put together season pass 2. A different experience from pass 1, but something that needed less production time than story DLC.
Once again, guessing on my part, but suspect I’m not too far off from what happened. Covid and the changing work landscape probably limited options for additional BL3 content too.
If they hadn’t abandoned BL3 for Wonderlands, they’d fall behind on abandoning Wonderlands for BL4 in 2 more years.
VaultHunter101
(So long, and thanks for all the fish)
#13
I guess this is one of those semantics/word use things. GBX have always used “season pass” to mean a deal on a specific number of items released over a specific time period, not as a “well we’ve got season 1, 2, 3…”
But times change and I’ve noticed that the more games do the “game as service” thing the further the definition of “season pass” gets removed from that. I think “Bundle” is probably a better term for what GBX mean by “Season Pass”, and they do seem to be moving that way in their marketing.
At the time of BL3’s release, BL2 was still in the top 100 (often the top 50) of games being played on Steam after 7 years, and BL1 still had (and has, for both of them) an active gamer group. So they knew clearly that the Borderlands franchise had longevity beyond the two year mark.
The large amount of BL3 pre-orders substantiated demand and with it the likelihood of a base engaged for a long time.
However, they do hold stats that you and I don’t see. They know what’s happening with active BL3 players, and they may be seeing a different trend than 1 and 2. I stopped playing BL3 5 months ago, though I still play BL1 and 2 daily, as one example of a previously engaged player, so they may have balanced their resources against data we don’t have.
VaultHunter101
(So long, and thanks for all the fish)
#16
The span of support for BL2 honestly surprised GBX, too. I don’t think they had originally intended to that long, and they certainly hadn’t envisioned head hunter packs or a 5th DLC. But BL2 was wildly successful beyond anyone’s expectations. That’s really hard to replicate.
I think I tend to settle out where @RavenOfArisia does. I’m about 99.9% certain that the response to BL3 was entirely predictable - they took 7 years for the sequel and BL2 and TPS were both fairly popular up to (and even after) BL3’s release. The demand and hype for BL3 was absolutely enormous. I don’t think there’s any way possible that GBX didn’t realize that BL3 was going to be very, very big. Clearly they decided to maximize their value (meaning, “how many people will buy this?”) in the first 2 years, as opposed to having a longer life like BL2.
I’m all for maximizing profit and don’t blame GBX at all for that. I do blame GBX for not figuring out a way to wring more life out of a game that players clearly wanted to have more life. The issue is that someone in management at GBX was not making balancing decisions designed around a game life of 5 years - but rather, they were making the balancing decisions around a game life of 2-3 years. That’s a mistake if you want to incorporate elements of a GaaS model, which BL3 does certainly do. I 100% would pay for more BL3 content right now - but I also would want balancing changes. That doesn’t seem like an absurd ask to me. Let’s be honest - if modders can do it in their free time, devs can do it, charge for it, and still make money. But you have to understand your product, and the evidence that GBX understands their product is not great (when it comes to BL3). At least IMO.
@otacon305 Yeah, I feel like No Man’s Sky is the gold standard for post-launch game support these days. BL3 post-release support is like 25% of No Man’s Sky - and that’s being generous. It actually kinda makes me frustrated as a BL fan that BL3 was not supported with a more holistic approach to the game post-launch. Whether it’s a GaaS or not, players expect it these days. And BL3 absolutely had the “good bones” to be a classic. It just isn’t. That’s a big miss IMO.
Just want to be clear again - I love GBX devs and I love BL3. BL3 just could have been so, so much better than it is.
