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[IbizaPocholo]

Epic's store helped us reach new Borderlands fans, Gearbox says

Launching exclusively on the Epic Games Store helped Borderlands 3 reach a new audience. That's according to the title's senior producer Anthony Nicholson, who told PCGamesInsider.biz that Borderl...

www.pcgamesinsider.biz

Launching exclusively on the Epic Games Store helped Borderlands 3 reach a new audience.

That's according to the title's senior producer Anthony Nicholson, who told PCGamesInsider.biz that Borderlands 3's success on PC was a combination of built-up excitement for the game and new players coming to the franchise via the Fortnite firm's platform.

Following the game's launch, the CEO of developer Gearbox Randy Pitchford said that Borderlands 3 had double the peak concurrent player figure of its predecessor, meaning it had around 248,000 people playing at one time. Ten days after release, publisher 2K revealed that this new entry had tipped the franchise over $1bn in lifetime revenue, with five million copies shipped. Not only that, but 70 per cent of sales within Borderlands 3's first five days in the wild were made digitally, with sales on Epic's storefront being described as "incredibly strong."

"The appetite amongst fans was definitely there, but Epic have been great partners and have done a lot to help us reach new players as well," Nicholson told PCGamesInsider.biz.

"So I’d say it’s a combination of everything that’s culminated in the success we’re seeing."

Nicholson also said that the community that has grown around the franchise was a huge part of Borderlands 3's success.

"A lot of that has to do with Borderlands 2. We loved and believed in the game back when it launched in 2012, but I’m not sure we could have anticipated the fandom that’s grown around it since then," he said.

"It’s both staggering and humbling and drives us to do what we do the best we can for those fans. That community has definitely kept enthusiasm for the franchise alive, and that’s likely encouraged more and more people to give the series a try. Add that to all the work our devs and marketing teams did over the last six months to get the game in front of so many people, and thankfully I think it added up to there just being a lot more Borderlands fans out there now."

 

[sol_bad]

What are it's concurrent players now?

 

[joe_zazen]

What are it's concurrent players now?

Really going to have to wait until take two‘s results but top paid on xbox painted a mediocre to poor launch.

With the success of 2 you’d think they would have been able to afford quality writers and union voice talent for 3. I guess barely legal squirt mistresses don't come cheap.

 

[Spukc]

blablabla fix the fucking menulag on consoles asshole

 

[Woo-Fu]

Easy to say, impossible to prove/disprove. How convenient.

 

[M0G]

"It’s both staggering and humbling and drives us to do what we do the best we can for those fans.

Oh fuck off. Seriously.

 

[Lanrutcon]

With all that money, I'm sure they'll hire an actual writer for the DLC content, right?

 

[BigAssBoy]

still wont play it till it is on steam

 

[joe_zazen]

Oh fuck off. Seriously.

Class A PR vomit for sure.

 

[Fbh]

OK?

All I read in that article is that the game did very well and they are happy with the sales performance on PC. But he doesn't give any data or even examples of how the Epic games store helped with this or how it "brought the game to a new audience".

All I'm getting from this is the (fairly obvious) conclusion that a large part of the audience doesn't care about the whole Epic store thing or at very least don't dislike it enough to boycott a big release like Borderlands.

 

[johntown]

Of course it reached new players. Any PC player that does not use Steam. The rest seems like propaganda.

 

[Celcius]

I think a good game would have reached new fans regardless. Will continue to wait on Steam version.

 

[manfestival]

This sounds like the same PR nonsense that developers state at the beginning cycle of a new console.

 

[joe_zazen]

OK?

All I read in that article is that the game did very well and they are happy with the sales performance on PC. But he doesn't give any data or even examples of how the Epic games store helped with this or how it "brought the game to a new audience".

All I'm getting from this is the (fairly obvious) conclusion that a large part of the audience doesn't care about the whole Epic store thing or at very least don't dislike it enough to boycott a big release like Borderlands.

we have no sell through to customer numbers yet, so there is nothing concrete wrt sales.

it is a shame given the enormous popularity of 2 that pitchfork’s management drove away so much talent. I so wanted a victory lap with Tales From and BL2’s writers, designers, and voice talent. Instead, well, we got 3 and randy got a nice fat check from 2K for more vaginal discharge streams.

 

[Shifty]

And in so doing managed to alienate a bunch of old Borderlands fans. Top kek, Gearbox.

 

[ethomaz]

And in so doing managed to alienate a bunch of old Borderlands fans. Top kek, Gearbox.

I really doubt that.

 

[Shifty]

I really doubt that.

Whatever you say, stanley.

 

[Endless Fluff]

Yeah sure, of course these new people who play Fortnite on PC don't already have a steam account (remember, Steam has 1 billion Accounts!) and would've bought the game there if it were available.

New audience my ass.

 

[ethomaz]

Whatever you say, stanley.

Because claim a fan won't play a game because it is in another store is reasonable

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

And in so doing managed to alienate a bunch of old Borderlands fans. Top kek, Gearbox.

I think after Aliens many people stopped buying Gearbox games in general.

 

[Spukc]

I think after Aliens many people stopped buying Gearbox games in general.

honestly nobody knew nor gave a fuck
only some elitist nerds cared about that drama

 

[SLoWMoTIoN]

honestly nobody knew nor gave a fuck
only some elitist nerds cared about that drama

Whatever you say Randy.

 

[Shifty]

Because claim a fan won't play a game because it is in another store is reasonable

Nah fam, I'm not here to enable your tired old rhetoric.

And I'd suggest the rest of the thread follows suit, that schtick is as dull as dishwater at this point.

 

[Gargus]

I highly doubt epic store brought in any new players. Unless somehow there were people who only used the epic and had never ever played a single game anywhere else.

If nothing else epic store lost them sales from the people who were upset that it wasn't on steam also and skipped the game.

Sounds more like they are trying to justify their choice to take the money to go epic exclusive than anything else.

 

[ethomaz]

Nah fam, I'm not here to enable your tired old rhetoric.

And I'd suggest the rest of the thread follows suit, that schtick is as dull as dishwater at this point.

Of course you won't because I exposed your bullshit.

Ohhhh they lose sales due being on Epic Store... shows the receipts? Because nothings shows they lose sales... the opposite.

Seems like that infamous CoD boycott where all people that signed the boycott where playing the game lol

I highly doubt epic store brought in any new players. Unless somehow there were people who only used the epic and had never ever played a single game anywhere else.

If nothing else epic store lost them sales from the people who were upset that it wasn't on steam also and skipped the game.

Sounds more like they are trying to justify their choice to take the money to go epic exclusive than anything else.

So you don't believe there is new users but you believe users didn't brought the game due Epic Store? lol
The first case is easier to happen than the second because it is more probable to have Fortnite guys that never played Borderlands before.

 

[Shifty]

Unless somehow there were people who only used the epic and had never ever played a single game anywhere else.

Fortnite players would be the immediate guess, but the significance of that particular userbase (and their inclination toward anything that ain't Fortnite) has yet to be proven.

That and the vast majority of them are probably using their parents' credit cards heyooooo

 

[lukilladog]

Odd enough, it´s not anywhere as popular as BL2 was on Twitch. Exclusivity to The Fortnite store might be a mistake for this type of games.

 

[Fbh]

we have no sell through to customer numbers yet, so there is nothing concrete wrt sales.

it is a shame given the enormous popularity of 2 that pitchfork’s management drove away so much talent. I so wanted a victory lap with Tales From and BL2’s writers, designers, and voice talent. Instead, well, we got 3 and randy got a nice fat check from 2K for more vaginal discharge streams.

Yeah but I'll need more than just raw sales. Good sales just means the franchise is popular and, at most, you can argue it means most people don't care about the launcher drama and will just buy the games they want on the platform where they're available.

But I'd need to see something more tangible to believe releasing on the Epic store resulted in more sales than they would have gotten on Steam.
If they are like "15% of buyers don't even have Steam installed" or "10% of buyers claim they had no prior knowledge of the franchise and they were made aware of it through the Epic Launcher" or something I'd be more inclined to believe them.

Also, yeah, if the game had been written by the Tales from the Borderlands writers I would have been way more hyped about it.

 

[DeepEnigma]

 

[Stuart360]

Dont know if i'd want a load of Fortshite kiddies playing my game.

 

[Explosive Zombie]

I bought the first two and all their DLC at launch, still haven't bought 3. I'd be lying if I said my issues are exclusively the Epic Game Store, they extend to who Pitchford is as a person, Take Two harassing Youtubers, Aliens Colonial Marines, how they've done nothing with the Duke Nukem IP... just a whole lot of reasons to hate Gearbox right now and not be impressed by a game that looks no different from part 2 anyways.

 

[Holammer]

You know what... They might be telling the truth, from a certain point of view.
According to an Epic survey (they also have oodles of mined data obviously) 40% of EGS users don't have Steam installed and a common reason because they mainly game on consoles. But without actual numbers it's not even damned statistics. A bunch of marketing spin that means little.

 

[lifa-cobex]

No it didn't Randy.
Now stop talking whilst jacking yourself off and release it on Steam.

 

[ethomaz]

You know what... They might be telling the truth, from a certain point of view.
According to an Epic survey (they also have oodles of mined data obviously) 40% of EGS users don't have Steam installed and a common reason because they mainly game on consoles. But without actual numbers it's not even damned statistics. A bunch of marketing spin that means little.

It is probably because a part of Fortnite players never bothered in play games on PC so they never touched Steam or any other launcher.
But after you get the habit I can see some Fortnite player buying Borderlands 3 with all the marketing related that Epic put even inside Fortnite.

 

[A.Romero]

I highly doubt it to be true but it kinda makes sense. Epic is full of kids that don't really play on other platforms thanks to Fortnite... Although I'd bet that once everything is tallied, they lost more sales from people not willing to jump on Epic than the ones they earned because they sold on Epic.

One thing is for sure, if there was no exclusivity they would have gained new players from EGS plus kept sales from players from another platforms.

Classic PR spinning.

I know they are doing their job by saying this shit but I don't know, for some reason any PR spin from EGS feels like a personal insult. I wouldn't even pirate their game at this point.