Gearbox Software's Battleborn was an ambitious project, combining elements of MOBA games with hero shooters, and serving as a fairly significant departure from the studio's Borderlands franchise. Unfortunately, Battleborn launched to mixed reviews, and its playerbase quickly dwindled. Battleborn's servers are going offline later this month, which will make the game completely unplayable from that point forward.
Fans have had a long time to prepare for the Battleborn servers going offline. Gearbox Software made the announcement all the way back in November of 2019, giving anyone interested plenty of opportunity to play the game if they so desired. Battleborn's servers will be going offline on January 25, and one of the game's developers has now shared their thoughts on the matter, describing the shutdown as "heartbreaking."
Aaron Linde worked on Battleborn as the game's lead writer. Linde described his remorse for Battleborn's demise in a long Twitter thread, expressing his sadness that all the work put into the game will essentially disappear and it will be "like the game never existed at all." Linde expressed thanks to Battleborn's fans and described the experience of working on the game's world as "the best experience."
Battleborn is still playable until January 25, so anyone interested should be sure to play it while they still can. Unfortunately, Battleborn has been removed from digital storefronts, so players may need to find a physical copy if they want to try the game while the servers are still live. Gearbox had previously made Battleborn free-to-play, to a certain extent, but even that version can't be downloaded anymore.
Gearbox Software may be done with Battleborn, but it's still supporting its latest title, Borderlands 3. There are more Borderlands 3 updates expected to drop throughout the year, including cross-play support, along with some new DLC. It remains to be seen what Gearbox Software's next big development project is after Borderlands 3, but more information should come to light once support on that game ends.
While it's sad that Battleborn is shutting down, Linde has moved on to other, higher profile projects. At the time of this writing, Linde is working as the lead narrative designer at 343 Industries, which is currently hard at work on Halo Infinite. Halo Infinite is the latest installment in Microsoft's flagship franchise, and is expected to be one of the biggest video game releases of 2021. So anyone that was impressed by Linde's work on Battleborn may want to give the new Halo a shot when it launches this fall.
Battleborn is available for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.