Battleborn and Overwatch are the two biggest players in the competitive arena shooter category. And the competition between the two is something that’s been publicized a lot lately. The latest bit of news? The price of Battleborn has dropped to $40 at many major brick-and-mortar and digital retailers, just ahead of the release of Overwatch according to Kotaku. Coincidence? Probably not.
Battleborn was released earlier this month, getting a bit of jump on Overwatch. However, Blizzard made their own strategic move by releasing the beta for Overwatch on Battleborn’s release date. Both Gearbox Software and Blizzard Entertainment, Battleborn and Overwatch developers respectively, have been pretty vocal about their games. That’s not surprising considering the saturation of games in the genre. But Gearbox and Blizzard have a leg up on the competition simply because of how loud they are from a publicity standpoint.
The Battleborn price drop is not the first time Gearbox has made a jab at Overwatch. At PAX East earlier this year, an uber vehicle dressed up like an Overwatch character was involved in an accident. Nobody was hurt, but guess who was the first to broadcast the news to the world? A Gearbox employee.
We haven’t seen any other jab from Blizzard, but their marketing campaign for Overwatch is in high hear. Late last week, giant “action figures” of Overwatch characters popped up in various places around the world.
It will be interesting to see which of the games comes out the winner in terms of sales and player reception. We’ve already reviewed Battleborn here at Pixelkin, and our Overwatch review will be coming tomorrow.
