There was a time when Battleborn and Evolve were two of the most anticipated games in the industry. Then both games launched and began struggling almost immediately.
It wasn’t that long ago that Gearbox’s CEO Strauss Zelnick talked about their disappointment in the performance of Battleborn, and how that might even lead to the game becoming a free-to-play title. Now the CEO of publisher Take-Two is weighing in as well.
During a recent conference Strauss Zelnick talked about how he doesn’t believe the performance and popularity of the two games does not represent the overall quality of their label. ”
“Listen, I think 2K is doing great. I think when you put out a lot of titles, not everything is going to work as well as one would like, and Battleborn is an example of that. Evolve is a little bit different. That was bought out of a THQ bankrupcy, and it was developed by an external studio with oversight from 2K, so it’s a totally different situation.”
“We knew it was a very unusual title, and it was a bet on an unusual title. It didn’t surprise us that consumers had mixed feelings about it. Battleborn was a disappointment. We’ve said so publicly, but I don’t think that’s systemic, because 2K is a company that brings you basketball which scores in the nineties, XCOM 2 and the like where we’re known for having very high scores,” he stated.
“So, we are in a position where even if we don’t get it exactly right, we can still do well, but make no mistake, our goal is to continue to get it right and to drive quality through the organization. Some times we don’t succeed as well as we would like,” he further added.
Thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.