As the Season Pass content is coming to an end with the fifth story operation, Phoebe and the Heart of Ekkunar, you start wondering what’s next for Battleborn. Will we be seeing future content for this game? Well, the short answer is YES, because there is still a new PvP game type coming to Battleborn called Supercharge. This post-launch DLC was already been announced like 40 weeks ago when Gearbox started doing their Battleplan updates. With this article, I want to look at what is beyond that, because me and other fans have been asking for more content. But how realistic is it that Battleborn will receive more content? Well let me guide you through some of the hints I have been seeing over the last few days and if there actually will be a season 2 for Battleborn.
Season 2, Because of Season 1
Gearbox created an interesting universe with Battleborn and it captivated players with its story and characters. It did this even so much that it started generating feedback from the community asking for more lore. Therefore the development team started adding lore items in the weekly Battleplans. The story Operation Phoebe and the Heart of Ekkunar also delivered hard on adding to the lore of this game. With an interesting story, this DLC left us with possibly a hint about a Season 2 of Battleborn DLC. I know a lot of TV shows always leave you on a big cliffhanger at the end of the season. They do this for one of two reasons. 1) to pull people back into to the series after the break or 2) to create enough buzz to get funding for another season. While option 2 would be very likely the case with the stigma that Battleborn has, however, an interesting detail concurred on the GBX Forums. A community badass, FlamesForAll, asked if there would be any lore about the PvP Maps or if this was just one big simulation. The Creative Director, Randy Varnell aka Jythri, answered his questions. While Randy mentioned it’s not a simulation and these PvP modes are the reason why we have different factions in the game he also sums up the main story:
The story of the Battleborn, season 1, definitely has friendships that grow and blossom. And, ultimately, it’s the story of “the enemy of enemy is my friend” as they group together to oppose Rendain’s plan to send Solus to the Varelsi. For a time, the Battleborn put aside their differences and group up. The Operation missions start to describe some of the time after. They are close contacts, and have reasons to work together, but without the singular threat of Rendain and the Varelsi, their attention and loyalties are prone to scatter.
As we continue the ongoing story and fiction of the universe, you will see more and more of this. At times together; at times violently opposed.
Randy Varnell on the GBX Forums
It is very odd that Randy Varnell mentions a “Season 1”, why would he define a season? During other interviews, he has always been talking about the main story or the base game. So this comment stands out to me and also reminds me of the unintended Borderlands 2 announcement by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. During a Q&A Panel, Mr. Pitchford accidentally mentioned Borderlands 1. There is no Borderlands 1, it’s just called Borderlands. But because he makes a distinct difference the audience and Randy himself caught onto it really fast that he just confirmed they were working on a second installment of the Borderlands franchise. It’s not uncommon for developers to have a WHOOPS moment like this as they are working on stuff that is months ahead of what we (the audience) know. In the case of Battleborn and Randy Varnell I know he likes to answer people’s questions but leaving them with a tease that raises new questions.
The Future Looks Bright
On another GBX Forum thread community member, seanshineyouth, asks the big question; “Will there be more characters or missions?” While this question doesn’t get answered for a little while seanshineyouth decides to summon the great @jythri tag and the question ; “So without necessarily giving specifics, is there light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for battleborn?” on which the Creative Director replies:
There are several lights still in that tunnel, and at least one is a giant train.
Randy Varnell on the GBX Forums
So to analyze this quote from Randy, this could imply a few things. Looking at the forums the community is going wild on the possibility of more content being added to the game. However, I have a different take on the added value. I think this giant train isn’t content in the form of an extra mission, more maps, or a new mode, I think this could possibly be a hint at the trial version of the game. So the things that get added are players and hopefully a brighter future. From what I have seen another patch is coming to the game and of course, this will once again fix stuff but it might also include this trial version.
MOAR Content!
If we have a look at the other lights that are in the tunnel, well I know the development team has been talking about a lot of stuff they would want to add or change to the game. There are enough ideas ranging from character reworks, changing up the loot system, adding new playable heroes, and more story operations. The question is what is reasonable to do, it still is a business decision. If I would try and justify more story operations I could look at the lore I mentioned earlier in this article. What if Gearbox decides to deliver on the demand for more lore by adding new DLC missions to the game? We know Gearbox did design their story missions to be highly replayable, but during a live stream, Randy Varnell mentioned that the number of replays exceeded their expectation. They thought players would go through them and jump into the multiplayer side of the game. With this, I could conclude that there is a market for the story missions. And as we are talking about a potential market; in an interview with Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford it was mentioned that Battleborn has entertained more than 3.5 million players. This isn’t a really bad number there have been games that performed worse, in any case, these people are the potential customers for this type of content. But if it’s enough to justify another season of story operations remains to be seen.
So to conclude on this I think there is still hope for us Battleborn players that we will be getting new content for our game. Although its shape or form hasn’t been revealed these quotes from Randy Varnell spark got me triggered.
